


Spirit Child

by Typingmitten



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/F, Family, Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:08:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 26
Words: 42,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22089877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Typingmitten/pseuds/Typingmitten
Summary: A story about how Asami and Korra started their family, seven years after the finale.Years after Kuvira's invasion, Korra still deals with the aftermath, fighting to protect Spirit lives from humans who wish to weaponize them.Asami, on the other hand, is working on a new technology despite her own judgment, having to face ghosts from the past.But in the midst of their hectic lives something puts a halt to their idea of how their future would look like. A girl, who needs their help, in more ways than one.
Relationships: Bolin/Opal (Avatar), Korra/Asami Sato
Comments: 143
Kudos: 241





	1. Sometimes Korra loves being the Avatar

**Author's Note:**

> Just a brief introduction to the story and where the world's at.  
> It has a one shot sort of feel.  
> Enjoy!

There were days Korra loved being the Avatar. 

Just today, doing her rounds around Republic city Spirit portal, checking in with the airbenders and acolytes, she noticed for the fourth time in a row this week this little kid, bright blue eyes and red garments, playing around jumping vines with some bright yellow spirits, they weren’t speaking to each other per se but they seemed to be communicating somehow through playing. 

She had to stop and marvel at the sight, suddenly stunned by the fact that ten years ago, that scene wouldn’t have been. She thought about this new generation that would grow up around spirits, literally a whole new world open to them. She let the glow of pride warm her chest for a second before returning to the petty bickering happening behind her.  
Rohan and a young Acolyte were trying to reason with a couple of tourists that insisted on taking a private tour to the spirit world, going as far as shuffling a couple Yuans in their hand, in a poor attempt at bribery. Rohan’s red face would have been comical if she herself wasn’t so frustrated about the situation. Some part of her wanted to take them inside the portal herself, show them the wonders inside, maybe tell them about Avatar Wan, let them give meditation a try, maybe they’d had another Jinora in their hands, who knew, those came in handy.

She wanted to share it with the world, that was why she had kept the portal open to begin with, humans and spirits living in harmony once again. But it had proven to be some sort of Utopia, a relic kept by her younger naive self. If she was honest, it had brought nothing more than trouble since its inception, and Korra couldn’t help but wonder if she was clinging to something that could never be. 

After Wonyong Keum gave away the lands around the portal, and Zhu Li assumed as president, she thought everything would be smooth sailing. And it was, for a while. Zhu Li managed to divert funds to keep the portal a public space even after the chaos left by Kuvira’s invasion. The air nomads took people into the spirit world, and took care of the place to the best of their abilities. 

The problem was, most people didn’t have the same intentions. It got old pretty quickly, the air nomads were needed around the four nations, and soon only the airbender newbies and acolytes in training were in charge of the portal, Korra already stretched beyond thin as it was, unable to give a hand on a regular basis. People started getting lost in the spirit world, vandalising the place, taking natural souvenirs and reselling them for profit. It made Korra sick. 

After a while only private tours were allowed, but that didn’t stop people from sneaking in at night. Finally, a few months ago it was decided to bring the police force and earthbend a 30 feet wall around the portal, closing indefinitely the physical passage into the Spirit world. Air nomads still gather around the sad brown cylinder and meditated, encouraging people to enter the Spirit world that way, but most tourists were in for a quick look around at weird mushrooms rather than a deep spiritual journey. Korra looked at the posters plastered all around the earth wall, all reading some sort of variation of **Down with Spirit-Human segregation** Korra couldn't help but wish she could firebend those into ashes, thinking: _That was the whole freaking point to begin with!_

She didn’t like it, but she had to side with the Spirits this time, protect them, before they retaliated. They were going away as it was anyways, at least now some of them were coming back. She thought about the little kid playing, and smiled, before going to Rohan’s rescue, who was looking flustered and about to go off on this people. Somehow the kid had managed to inherit Tenzin’s pride and Bumi’s energy. 

“I’m sorry ma’am, the portal is not open for visitors, but you are invited to meditate with us if you want” Korra was pretty sure she had said the same sentence a million times. It never failed to piss people off. Maybe the air nomad’s needed a publicist. Maybe she needed a publicist. She put a pinned to it-

After a whole lot of _“pleases”_ and _“how dare you”_ and _“Avatar Aang would never”_ she nodded slightly at Rohan and let the kid go wild on the couple. She had more important stuff to deal with, a small mob of protestors marching towards the park. 

“LISTEN LADY” she heard Rohan scream as she glided towards the mob. 

Some days Korra loved being the Avatar, but today wasn’t one of them. 

It was far too dark and she was way too tired to be flying on her glider, but she had lingered at the portal for far too long, too late to catch a lift on one of the airbender’s bison, and she would rather fly right into a spirit vine than ride with Lin and her second in command. The woman seemed to be dumping all of her frustrations about Mako leaving the force into the poor guy, trying to bend the newbie to her prodige’s image the only way she knew how- by sheer force. And screaming, there was plenty of that too. Spirits, she missed Mako, she was trying to remember the date of the upcoming trip to the Fire Nation when she noticed herself losing altitude.

Luckily, she had finally reached home. The same gust of wind that plained the glider was used to open the front door with a loud bang. She winced regretting the excessive force afraid she would wake Asami up, but she was nowhere to be seen in the lobby. She checked the kitchen and noticed leftover dinner kept warm inside the oven. _Good, she at least has come home for dinner_ There were a lot of late nights spent with her in her Futures Industries office lately, she was glad she wouldn't have to crush in Asami’s couch tonight.

Korra went straight downstairs to her wife’s workshop. The place was always a complete mess, sketches hanging from every visible inch of wall, if not lying on the ground, oily footprints darkening their corners, all apparently concerning the machine that laid in the center as the jewel of the crown. Korra took a deep breath when she reached the end of the stairs. She loved the smell of the place, it was a mix of sawdust, oil and sandalwood.

It seemed like her couch-crushing streak wasn’t over. Asami had fallen victim to a bigger blueprint laying in front of her on the coffee table, a pencil in her hand. Korra kicked her boots off and untied the leather jacket at her waist before switching the sleeping woman from the seated position she was in, to laying on her side, leaving just enough space for Korra to squeeze in, an arm propping her head up. Asami scooted closer to her, wrapping and arm and leg around Korra’s body.

“Korra, you’re home” Asami muttered into her chest. “I fell asleep waiting for you”

“Yeah, I can see that” she responded, nuzzling at the black hair. She breathed in sawdust, oil and sandalwood. 

“How was your day?” the question was asked absently; drunken circles being traced in her dark skin. 

“ I saw a kid playing with some spirits at the portal, it was really cute” she answered, drowsily “Those little yellow ones, like the one that kept asking us for lychee nuts that one time”

“The spirits are coming back out?!” the voice seemed more enthusiastic, but Asami’s head remained against Korra’s chest. 

“Yeah, I guess they are, the smaller ones at least” she hummed, as if she had just realized.

“Way to go, Avatar” she raised her head to meet Korra’s lips, her eyes still shut “Congratulations sweetie, told you you’d figure it out” 

_Yeah, I guess I did figure something out._

Today Korra loved being the Avatar, she thought, drowsing off at Asami’s the steady breathing.


	2. An Intriguing Idea

“Good Morning” Asami said to her face-down sleeping wife, still on the couch. Korra groaned and reflexibly stretched her hand out to the side, where Asami had placed the tea cup. “I gotta head up to work now”

“Already?” the words were muffled by the couch. 

“It’s almost seven” Asami protested as Korra slowly straightened herself up and started seeping at her tea.

“Crap, I guess you are right” she looked up at the engineer, already in her Future Industries getup. “I hardly see you anymore” she said with a pout, combing her hair with her free hand, fingers meeting the braid, suddenly remembering she was still in yesterday’s clothes. 

“I know” Asami bent down to Korra’s level “But we have that trip to the Earth Kingdom coming up, we might get a little breather then” she kissed Korra's hair “I need to trim these down for you” she added, looping around her finger the loose strand of hair framing Korra's face. Her wife didn't acknowledge the comment.

“Yeah, we _might_ ” she responded, trapping Asami's arm, tugging her towards the couch. Instead, Asami pulled Korra up, getting her to her feet, tea spilling slightly over the edges of the cup. “Can I see you today?” Korra said as she waterbended the liquid into her mouth before it hit the floor. “I can come by at lunch” she gulped the tea. 

“Won’t the mobs burn down the city?” Asami answered mockingly. 

“Let them try” Korra wrapped an arm around Asami’s waist and gave her a peck on the corner of the mouth “Gonna take a shower now” she freed Asami from the embrace and climbed the stairs two steps at a time. 

“Bring food!” Asami screamed as Korra disappeared upstairs. 

She sighed, looking around, stopping at the blueprint laying on the coffee table. There was nothing she rather do than stay home working on it, but there were a bunch of papers needing her signature and conferences needing her presence. So, she rolled the big sheet of paper and tucked it under her arm, maybe she could work on it sometime during the day. 

But she couldn’t, she knew she wouldn’t have the time, but that was her way of working sometimes. Having the blueprint near her desk at all times was a way of keeping her head on the project while doing other boring tasks. It may also have been a little distracting. 

Asami had been staring at the rolled-up blueprint for a while, ink dropping on the document she was supposed to be reading. 

“What are you working on?” Korra came behind her on the desk, resting a hand on her shoulder. Asami jumped on her chair, further messing up the document in front of her.

“Spirits, Korra, you scared me” she said, grabbing her chest in surprise. 

“I knocked” Korra said with a grin “You told me to come in” her laugh made the room airer. 

“Oh, right, sorry” Asami laughed it off as well. 

“It’s big, isn’t it?” they were now both looking at the rolled-up blueprint.

“It could be”

“Want to talk about it? You seem more freaked out about it than usual” she could tell Korra was trying to make light of the subject, but Asami noticed the worried tone to her voice.

Did she want to talk about it, though? There was no getting this project out of her mind anytime soon, but realistically she hadn't even passed it on to the bioengineers of Future Industries yet, so far it was just an idea. An intriguing idea. But no more viable than the full body scanner that wrecked everyone's brains last semester, and ended up being a dead end. Maybe she needed to keep Korra to herself, a safe haven from her own over analytical mind.

“It's not a fully realized idea yet” she stood up and grabbed the bag with food from Korra's hand “Now, what did you bring me?” she started setting some papers aside so they could eat on the desk. 

“Actually, do you have your satomovile with you?” Korra asked, walking towards the door.

“What do you have in mind?” Asami raised an eyebrow 

“Maybe we could go lunch with the airbenders” 

“Oh no, that's a mistake I plan on making only once, we'll both end up choking on jook while fighting a bunch of spirits” 

“No, not to the portal, to the island” Korra had a sweet grin to her face “Opal is back from Zaofu”

“With little Rinzen?” now the grin had spread to Asami's face.

“With little Rinzen” Korra laughed “We better hurry before your lunch break is over” 

“Oh, who cares, I'm the CEO, I can be late” she said, the bag of food on one hand and Korra's arm on the other.

“Do I have to lure you with babies every time I need you out of your office?” Korra said while being dragged out the door.

“That's an idea” An idea maybe less viable than the one in the blueprint. 

“You are working yourself off your hinges, woman” but Korra felt the longing as well

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like my stories like I like my coffee, slowburning with a sweet aftertaste.   
> Next chapter things start going south.


	3. Up in Flames

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The world won't let Korra and Asami have a nice, quiet lunch for once.

Korra's heart was in a puddle on the ground of Air Temple Island. And it could stay there, she didn't care. 

“You are good at that” she mouthed to Asami playing with Rinzen. Asami stared back at her with a warning written in her face. Korra knew not to push further.

“We missed you guys” Opal said with a smile, a dumpling cooling between her chopsticks.

“We missed the extra hands” Bolin said, and was immediately met with his wife's elbow on his ribs. 

“I didn't think you'd be short of helping hands in Zaofu with all your brothers” Korra said while slurping five-flavour soup. 

“It takes a village, and it happens that the air nomads are a bigger more mothering village than the Beifongs” Bolin said mockingly. 

“Well, we certainly don't mind helping out, no we don't” Asami said with a childlike voice, making faces at Rinzen, who chuckled.

“Speaking of brothers, any news on Mako?” Korra added mindlessly, extending her hands towards Asami, who carefully placed the child on Korra's legs, who then began bouncing him.

“I last saw him about a month after Rinzen's birth” he stopped to think “He said something about upping his ranking on the United Forces, but I forgot” Korra gave him a skeptical look “What? I was too sleep deprived, you guys have no idea-” Bolin cut himself short before Opal could, and Korra couldn't help but wince. 

Her and Asami had spoken at lengths about children, before and after marriage. Asami was adamant on not having them, saying their lifestyle wasn't compatible with one of parents. She said it was too hectic, too busy to accommodate a child properly.

Korra suspected _hectic_ was the word Asami used instead of dangerous, to protect her feelings. To be honest, Korra didn't know how she felt about having kids. She knew, however, how she felt about Asami not wanting kids. She felt guilty. 

The conversation came to a halt, but it was quickly interrupted by some commotion happening inside the temple. 

“Someone call Korra!” they heard a voice in the distance that sounded like Tenzin's. Korra handed out Rinzen to Bolin, the three women standing up and running towards the temple.

Some of the air benders were already jumping onto their bisons when they came to the base of the stairs, where they met Tenzin. 

"Lin called, they need back up" she said, short of breath "She only briefed me about an ambush on a new triad blowing out of proportion" Opal was blowing impatiently her bison whistle "They have hostages" that last sentence echoed in Korra's head. Luckily Juicy had responded to Opal insisting calling quite quickly. Both her and Korra airbended their way into the saddle.

"Care to join, for old times' sake?" The Avatar said to her wife, extending a hand out for her to grab.

"Told you they'd burn the city down when you weren't looking" Asami said as a response, climbing up the bison.

They followed the rest of the airbenders to the crime scene. It wasn't hard to spot from afar, as there were flames involved, but it was harder to paint a clear picture of what was going on. Korra didn't wait for Juicy to land, instead she grabbed Asami by the waist and they both jumped of the bison's back, cushioning the landing with a ball of air. 

She could see the scene better without the smoke clouding up her view. It seemed like the police had barricaded the remaining outlaws sealing the outpost’s only exit with a wall of fire, flames already starting to engulf parts of the building. 

"What the hell, Lin, why the fire? there could be hostages still in there" Korra pulled water out of a gutter and guided it towards the flames, but the fire didn't ease up.

"I'd appreciate if you didn't tell me how to do my job" Lin yelled over the sound of earthbenders trying to smother the fire with piles of dirt "It wasn't us, it was one of them" 

"That makes no sense" Asami yelled as well, arming herself with an electric glove given by an officer "Half of the triad is still in there" she was right, the black uniform together with the eerie black and red drawings in their faces now smudged with sweat made spotting the members of the triad an easy task. They were climbing up the building and jumping of the roof if not burrowing themselves deeper into the building, desperate to escape.

_The hostages, it was one of the hostages._ Korra thought to herself. 

"Where are the hostages?" Korra asked, but was already bending a bubble of sewage water around herself, preempting the answer. 

"Some of them escaped, some of them were used as shield by the fugitives, I suspect most of them are still inside" Lin run up to Korra, who let her into the bubble. 

But before they could step into the building, they heard more screaming and flames from a few blocks away. Korra let out a groan in frustration. 

"I got it" Asami said, running towards the commotion with a bunch of police officers. 

"Be careful!" Korra screamed before entering the building in flames. 

The water, fire and smoke made watching where they were going pretty impossible. 

"Where to now?" Korra asked Lin, who was trying to focus on her seismic sense despite not being able to walk barefoot on the collapsing floor.

"Straight, careful with the overhang ahead" she said, her eyes closed, forehead scrunched up. "If Mako hadn't left the force" she murmured under her breath with spite. "I could use a firebender right about now" she let the metal wire from her suit lanch forwards beyond the bubble, and someone screamed as a result, a bunch of wood crumbling when the wire ventured right, dragging the triad member along with it. 

"Good catch” Korra praised “And hey, you got me, I'm four in one"

"Careful now, left and down some stairs" she warned before she kept her complaining "Oh but you don't seem to be so good at waterbending and firebending at the same time, do you?" 

Korra stepped on a loose plank of wood going down the stairs and almost lost her balance, the bubble trembling around them as she regained composure. "Careful I said!" Lin scolded. 

"Oh sorry if I'm too focus on keeping us raw!" Korra protested as they walked the long hall following the staircase. Korra didn't need Lin's instructions now, she could see the door in front of her through the water, the corridor free of flames so far. She let go of the bubble, and Lin earthbended a wall of earth right behind them, just in case.

"Everyone back down, I'm coming in" Korra scrunched the metal door, and let herself into the basement. 

Her heart skipped a beat when she saw what was inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, yeah, cliffhanger. Sorry about that, I guess?  
> Also, writing Lin is fun.


	4. The Basement

Children. About a dozen little kids not older than twelve, a few as young as Rinzen. Some had their faces drenched in tears, others were just squeezed in a corner, hugging each other, trembling in fear. She heard Lin block the entrance with a column of earth, then she spoke, breaking her frozen spell.

"We have to go" and she opened her way through the kids, as if they were no more than furniture, to the other end of the room, where she began earthbending a way out. But the kids didn't move. They didn't know they were the good guys.

"It's okay" Korra said, approaching the smallest boy of the bunch. The kid recoiled, moving away from Korra's touch almost out of instinct, and hid behind an older girl that seemed almost as terrified. Korra was at a loss.

"I'm the Avatar" it seemed like a stupid thing to say, but she didn't know what else to do, maybe she was trying to remind herself of the fact. Whatever it was, it did the trick, a light of recognition shining through the older children's eyes. "She is the chief of police" she pointed at Lin that was still creating a tunnel they could venture through "We are going to get you out of here, get you back to your families" she said, now more firmly, as she ushered the children into the tunnel.

It didn't take long, but it sure seemed like it. Lin sensed with her feet before opening their way through the earth. Korra on the other end was sealing it, counting frantically making sure no kid was left behind while lighting their way with a self-generated torch. She noted in the dim light of her own flame the markings in the children skin, alike the ones she saw painted in the outlaws faces. Was it some initiation ritual? 

The light of the day shone above her before she could ask herself any more questions. Lin jumped out of the hole and started reaching inside, one by one Korra handed the children to her and to the air nomads that came to help until she was the only one remaining inside the hole. 

She spat the soot out of her mouth and washed the dirt off her face, before looking around at the wreckage surrounding them. The flames were almost extinguished, the furious red of the flames now replaced by the somber black of the ashes.

It was all but calm. The kids were crying while the air nomads were trying to console them, playing tricks with airbending, trying to buy time while more police forces were sent to the site to take their statement, and hopefully take them home. The officers already at the scene were occupied cuffing the few triad members that were caught. And even though it was chaos, Korra felt relieved, at least they were safe for now.

She looked for Asami in the crowd, wanting nothing more but to kiss her. But she couldn't find her, the realization sinking in like black ink in clear water. She grabbed a free officer that came by her by the arm.

"Where's Asami?" she asked maybe with too much panic written in her eyes, the same terrified look reflected in the officer's face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's short and grim, sort of a prolog to the next one.  
> Would love to hear opinions/suggestions


	5. The Fugitive

"I got it" Asami said to Korra. She signaled to three officers nearby to get into one of the police cars. She hopped onto the driver’s seat and stepped on the gas, sirens flaring.

First, she followed the smoke, then she let the wreckage left by the firebender on the loose lead the way, the earthbenders on the car clearing the road. She was baffled. Why leave such a noticeable trace if you were trying to escape? This dude must be maniacal, trying to cause as much havoc as possible. 

She slammed the brakes making everybody in the car pivoted violently in their seats, a wall of blue flames blocking the entry to narrow alley.

"On foot it is, then" said one of the officers, slamming the car's door and firebending the flames away. He then run into the alley, Asami and the two other officers following suit.

Asami couldn't see past the hungry blue flames that engulfed her vision seconds after stepping into the alleyway, but she could have sworn there was a shadow climbing up the fence at the other end of the passage before the two officers blocked the flames with ramparts. 

Asami run to the metal fence ignoring the firebender officer yelling her to stick behind him. The metal seemed to be melting from the heat, now turned an angry bluish red. She had never seen something like it outside her workshop. She had never seen blue fire at all. A certain uneasiness grew inside her. She fidgeted with her glove, making sure it worked.

The hot fence was bended away, and the chase continued. The fugitive made no efforts in hiding its trail, a tail of blue fire marking its passing. It was so devoid of sense that Asami worried for a second about the fugitive luring them to a trap. But its moves seemed too erratic to be on purpose, led more by panic and less by reason. 

And finally, the chase came to its inevitable conclusion. The fugitive was trapped. It had cornered itself on a dead end, walls of tall buildings blocking any possible escape route. It tried creating its own anyways, aiming the fury of its firebending to the stoic walls, trying to will them into submission. 

The target of its wrath swiftly changed when Asami and the officers started closing in from behind. Asami raised her gloved hand prepared to knocked the fugitive out, but stood frozen in place, unsure about what to do.

The other officers didn't seem to hesitate as she did. The two earthbenders tied the fugitive's hands and feet from a distance with the metal wire from their suits. They tensed the line up until the fugitive layed laying starfished on the ground, the metal wire glowing red from the blue flames still shooting from its extremities, scorching the skin beneath. 

"Stop" she said under her breath, unable speak any louder. None of the officers heard her, and kept tightening their grasp on the fugitive, who was screaming from its self-inflicted injuries. 

"STOP, STOP" Asami shrieked, her voice breaking "Stop, it's just a child" 

A girl, as far as she could tell, maybe four or five years old, she was small, and she was scared and in pain. 

The earthbenders looked at each other in confusion, still not letting go. Asami's desperation escalated "Let go of her, she has nowhere to run, she won't escape" she wanted to sound firm, but her words came out more like a plea. It didn't matter, it worked, and the earthbenders let go of the girl.

She immediately breathed out a weak column of fire from her mouth, her hands too sore to do so, and scattered to a dark corner. Her silhouette disappeared, but the traces of blue flame escaping her nostrils was still visible against the black wall.

Asami told the three officers to back down while she walked carefully towards the girl, weak blue flames appearing in disapproval every time she made any sudden movements. She was a few steps away from the girl when Asami gained enough courage to speak.

"Hi there, I'm Asami" she said sweetly, but the girl still got startled by the voice and instinctually drew a circle of fire around herself shielding her face between her knees. Asami felt a knot form in her throat "It's okay, I'm not gonna hurt you" the girl didn't attack as Asami kept approaching, but she didn't seem to believe her words either, after all, only seconds ago they were chasing and restraining her.

"We were confused, we just thought you were a bad guy" she kneeled beside the girl, finally close enough to see her clearly. She was huddled over, cupping her injured hands, reddish markings going up her sleeves. Asami fought the impulse to stare in horror and instead looked up at the girl's face, piercing eyes almost as blue as the fire she produced staring back at her. "But now we know it's just you, so you don't have to run or be afraid anymore" she tried hiding the shaking in her voice, trying to sound reassuring "I am so sorry about earlier, but I promise we can help you now" the girl turned slightly towards Asami as this one stretched a hand, inviting her to grab it. "Maybe find your mom and dad" 

Asami had to pull her hand away quickly as a new flame with renovated vigor stood between her and the girl. She tumbled backwards but managed to catch herself, unburned. The three officers behind her were already coming to her aid, but she dismissed them with a slight move of a hand, begging them not to move, suspecting it wouldn't end up well for either party involved.

"It's okay, we don't have to do anything you don’t want to" she reassured, getting closer to the girl once again "Can you tell me your name?" She asked but no words came out of the girl, only a quiet whimper as she blew on her hands, the last attack invigorating the stinging in her wounds. "How about we make your hands feel better first" for the first time the girl seemed to acknowledge Asami's words, and gave her a barely-there-nod. Asami breathed out, letting go of a sigh she didn’t know was holding. "We have to get out of here first, though" she held her hand out once again but this time the girl grabbed onto Asami's fingers. Her skin was scorching hot.

The girl tried to walk, but limped and then stumbled to the ground after a few steps, her ankles also burned from before. She looked up at Asami, her little heart-shaped face filled with uncertainty "It's okay, I can carry you" she kneeled before the girl who immediately stared at her electric glove with panic written in her face. Asami removed it hastily, tossing it to the side, far away from them, regretting not having done it sooner. She could almost feel the tacit complaint from the officers behind her. "That's nothing for you to worry about" she said, stretching both arms out for her.

And slowly, doubtfully, the girl approached Asami, wrapping her arms around her neck and her little legs around her torso. Asami wobbled up to her feet, suddenly burden by a weigh far greater than she was prepared to carry. But she remained steady nonetheless, a firm hand pressed on the girl's back, feeling her quicken heart beating against her palm. She closed her eyes before walking back to the officers, whose faces looked bewildered. 

"Where's Asami?" she heard a familiar voice howl not too far away, and she felt the little girl shrink in their embrace, trying to burrow further into Asami's chest. As a response, Asami quickly shifted her touch from the girl's back to her nape, almost protectively, stroking the tangled-up hair as she stepped outside the dark alleyway. 

She saw Korra covered in ashes and dirt in the distance, only the girl in her arms preventing her from running to her encounter. Korra saw her too, her face shifting from worry, to relief to confusion. But even if she didn't fully understand, she noticed Asami's methodic and calculated steps, and slowed down, approaching her wife as if she was a scared fox antelope.

They reached each other and Korra placed a hand on the arm Asami was wrapping the girl with. "Who is she?" she whispered, trying to catch a glimpse of the girl's face, nestled in Asami's neck.

"I don’t know".


	6. Little Girl

"What happened to her?" Korra asked in a whisper, speaking for the first time since the alleyway.

She had been working on the girl's wrists for the last half hour, all the while, the kid hadn't let go of Asami's neck, her wide-open eyes following Korra's every movement, as if expecting Korra to suddenly turn against her.

She had initially freaked out at the iridescent blob of water, but Asami held her tight and once Korra managed to place the healing water on her skin, her whole body relaxed all at once, a high-pitched sigh escaping her lips. 

Korra's heart hurt for the girl. For a child so young to lash out like that, she must have been truly terrified. Korra prefer not to think on what, or rather who caused that kind fear. Instead she kept working on her injuries meticulously, slowly as to announce every move to the girl before it was done. Finally, she had given up her vigil and fallen asleep, body limp against Asami. Only then, Korra dare to break the silence.

"The police restrained her, but she kept shooting flames, so the wire burned her" Asami responded a few seconds later, her voice sounding robotic, Korra noticed, a little alarmed. She knew that meant Asami's mind had gone somewhere else. Sometimes to places Korra didn't know how to pull her out of.

"You can turn her around, I'm done with her wrists" Korra kept talking, luring Asami to reality again. "I didn't mean the burns, I'm talking about the scars"

"Which scars?" Asami carefully shifted the girl from her chest to laying on her lap, arms on her belly. She took a better look at the markings from earlier, she had confused them with burns but they looked older and more… _permanent_ than the ones inflicted by the heated wired, now almost imperceptible thanks to Korra's healing. They originated from a single line traced along her middle finger and expanded like a fan throughout her hand and wrist wrapping around her forearm. Pink serpents tracing erratic paths on the skin. Almost like a jellycrab sting. 

"She has them in her legs as well" Korra said in horror, as she rolled up the legs of her pants to reach the burned ankles. The girl tossed a little at the contact, so Korra hurried to resume the healing, not to disturb her rest. 

"Who did this to you?" Asami whispered, not to Korra, but to the girl, stroking the sleeping face with the back of her hand. The water Korra was bending trembled slightly around the girl's ankles, suddenly shaken by the scene.

"Don't worry, I'm gonna find out" Korra said, her voice low. And she meant it. 

Lin approached the two women. She looked drained, having just sent the last few of her officers home after taking every kid to the station, and dealing with most of the wreckage. 

"I hate when kids are involved" she spat loudly, reclining onto the side of one of the police cars, next to where Asami and Korra were seated on the ground. "Want a blanket?" She answered at the scolding glares the women gave her.

"I don't think she needs it, she feels hot" Asami whispered, placing a hand on the girl's forehead.

"She should be, after producing all that fire" Lin caught on and lowered her voice "She might be the one who sent the place up in flames, none of the other kids seemed to be benders"

"No, the fire wasn't blue when we arrived, she produces blue flame" Asami paused "Wait, there were other kids?" she looked at Korra.

"Yeah, about a dozen more, hidden in a basement" something clicked in Korra's head "I believe I saw similar scars on some of them, I thought they were painted on, like the drawings on the triad's faces" she stared at the lightning-like scars climbing up the girl's leg "Did the kids say something about it?" 

"They were… confused, to say the least" Lin seemed to be choosing her words carefully "They kept talking about a monster, or a shadow, maybe both" she clicked her tongue. "I just hope to find their parents soon so they can forget about all of this" 

"Were you able to contact any of the families?" Asami said, her gaze still fixed on the sleeping child.

"A couple of them matched the description of a bunch of kids that disappeared around the same time" she said, fingers pinching the bridge of her nose "But that doesn't even account half of the kids we found today"

"Some of them didn't seem to be from Republic City either" Korra added.

"She looks Water tribe" Lin commented, nodding towards the girl.

"Only she firebends" said Korra.

"Only she firebends" Lin agreed with a sigh "If they were kidnapped and smuggled from other nations the process might drag on for weeks, longer if they are orphans"

"Where will they stay in the meantime?" Korra asked, slowly easing the healing water off the girl's skin. 

"We will have to find families to take them in for the time being" 

"We can take her" Korra blurted out. Asami shot her a killer look, her green eyes flaring with sudden anger.

"There is no need, we can bring her to the station, we will need her testimony eventually anyways. She may know more than the other kids, managing to escape and all…- Lin intercepted, catching on the tacit disagreement between the women.

"No, there is no need for that" Asami spoke with a raspy voice "We'll bring her to you, until then we'll take care of her" Korra winced at her tone. It was a fight waiting to happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My chapters feel a little short, so I'll uppload twice a week for now.  
> Next chapter up on Thursday.  
> Hope you like it!


	7. Stray Firebender

"She is not a stray puppy, Korra!" Asami unleashed the anger she'd been holding in all the way up to the house. Korra had placed the girl to sleep in their bed, and gone downstairs in silence, where Asami met her. She was pacing frantically back and forth in the livingroom, the ceramic floor clicking under her feet.

"You are right, she is not" Korra was trying to be the one maintaining composure for once, but the fatigue from today's events was making it difficult "She is a firebender child that doesn’t seem to control her abilities yet. What if no other family takes her in because of it? Asami stared at her feet “Besides, you helped her, she seems attached to you now”

"What else was I supposed to do?" Asami yelled, suddenly fired up "Let her in the streets?! Let her be taken in like a criminal?!" 

"No of course not, that's not what I meant" Korra raised her voice slightly "What was **_I_** supposed to do!?, Let Lin take her to the station?! Let her wake up all alone when she fell asleep in your arms?!

"Yes!" Asami yelled "No, maybe, I don't know!" She covered her face with her hands, afraid the tears would betray her "We talked about this, Korra" she almost whimpered.

" _We_ did not" Korra was now enraged " _You_ decided, and that was it" the front door began shaking at Naga's insisting clawing from outside. "Quiet Naga!" 

"I thought we agreed!" Asami didn't want to have this fight, she could see where it was going, and she didn't like it. But she couldn't stop it either.

"I want what you want, Asami!" Korra lowered her voice "But you are not being honest with me, you are not being honest with yourself!" Korra turned her back on her wife and marched towards the door to let Naga in before she tore down the door.

"What is that supposed to mean?!" Asami also turned her back on Korra but for different reasons "Wanting what I want" she murmured under her breath "That's not how these things are supposed to work!!" she now yelled, turning around.

"I understand plenty how things work" Korra stopped, her hand on the doorknob” _You_ don't want kids because _I'm_ the Avatar, because _my_ life is dangerous, maybe because… because _I'm_ a woman? I don’t even know anymore!" She swallowed hard "The only thing I know for sure is that it's _my_ fault" she opened the door and let Naga in.

"That's not at all-" Asami's voice had softened, but was cut short by Naga, who run rampantly upstairs foreseeing the screeching scream that filled the air not a second after.

Both women looked at each other before running upstairs behind Naga, Korra blocking them both when they reached their bedroom door.

"Stay behind me, if she's scared, she might firebend" Asami didn't listen, and busted through the door with Korra alongside her.

The girl was no longer in their bed, she was now hunched over in a corner, blue flames enveloping her hands and running up her arms through her scars like lightnings on fire. It would have been beautiful if they weren't all so terrified.

"It's okay, it’s okay" Asami shushed, approaching the child.

"Asami wait-" Korra warned when her wife went to hold the girl's hands, still on fire. But to her surprise, the flames extinguished the second Asami touched her, the fierce blue eyes stained with terror softening with recognition. 

Asami felt the heat of the girl's hands on her own skin, as if she was holding a soft piece of coal, but she didn’t let go. She wasn't afraid of her, and she needed the girl to know that. The bewildered eyes moved from Asami's hands to her face while glazing over with tears. The woman let go of the child slowly, both kneeled facing each.

"You are safe here" Asami said with admirable calm. "I'm sorry we left you alone, we though you might sleep better that way". Korra noticed the plural, standing behind her, awkward, not knowing what to do "We can leave you alone, or we can stay with you tonight, your call" now the girl looked up at Korra, a tacit question written in her face. "Oh, she is alright, her name is Korra, you can trust her, she is nice" 

The girl fixed her gaze on Korra for a second, looked down at her wrists frowning, and back up at Korra. Apparently, she had made up her mind because she then dragged herself across the floor and onto Asami's lap without any prompting. 

The women shared a look before Asami scooted the girl up and sat on the bed reclining against the headboard. She saw in amazement how the girl nestled at her side, grabbing a fistful of her clothes, as if to make sure Asami couldn't go anywhere while she slept. 

Korra covered them both with a blanket and marched towards the door, where Naga was waiting for her. 

"Can Korra come here with us?" Korra stopped on her tracks at Asami's words. She closed her eyes in relief, they still had things to talk about, but the fight was over. 

She turned around fast enough to catch the girl nodding, so she walked slowly towards them, and laid next to Asami, the girl between them. 

They stayed like that for a while, in tense silence at the unfamiliarity of the situation, Asami's head on Korra's shoulder, and Korra's arm wrapped around Asami, until the girl fell asleep.

"What are we going to do?" Asami said in a trembling whisper. 

"Sleep" Korra kissed Asami's hair and tighten her embrace "Tonight there is nothing else to do" 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Less drama and more fluff next chapter on Monday.   
> Would love to hear suggestions :)


	8. Her Name

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Korra spends some time with the girl, and discovers a few things about her

Korra woke up to two crystal blue eyes looking at her with curiosity. Forgetting about the child on their bed, she got startled and knocked her head against the wooden headboard, eliciting a sly smile from the girl. 

Korra rubbed the back of her head and returned the smile, amused by the girl's reaction. She decided to try her luck and walk towards the doors, wondering if the girl would dare to follow. 

She did not. Instead she chose to remain seated on the bed next to Asami who still slept peacefully. Korra waved a hand at her, and the girl's eyes clouded with doubt, looking at Asami and then at Korra. The Avatar took a finger to her lips, telling the girl to be quiet, and again prompted her to follow her lead. The girl climbed down the bed and walked up to Korra, taking the woman by surprise when she held her hand.

Outside the bedroom door laid Naga, snoring quietly. The girl took a few steps back and threatened to return to Asami, freaked out by the sight of the massive polar bear dog, but Korra held onto her hand.

"Don't be afraid of Naga" she said still with a sleepy voice "She only eats fish and kibble, wouldn't hurt a fly, certainly not you" Korra said, patting Naga with her free hand. The girl followed suit. "See? You can play together later if you want, but now we need to sort some things out" the girl looked alarmed but followed the motions along with Korra, who went downstairs and served her breakfast. 

Korra noticed how tiny the girl looked seated at the table, even the bowl of rice seemed too big next to her, Korra was sure she wouldn’t be able to finish it all, but was quickly proven wrong. The girl not only ate every single grain but she then asked for the apple Korra was eating. While the girl munched at the slices, Korra spoke.

"You hungry, huh?" The girl kept chewing as a response, holding her hand out asking for another slice "Later we can go get some Seaweed soup, if you'd like" The girl stopped eating and looked up, confused. _So, she is not from the north then_ Korra kept prodding: "How about two-headed fish soup?" The face of disgust told her she wasn't familiar with southern water tribe cuisine either. 

Korra wasn't surprised, the girl had blue eyes, but she didn't look entirely water tribe. Her complexion was tanned but a tad lighter than Korra's, and her dark black hair, even if tangled up, was partially gathered in a topknot, in Fire Nation style. 

"We'll stick to apples for now, then" the girl didn't seem to complain, and kept chewing. They looked at each other for a while when breakfast was over, neither of them quite sure on what to do next, Korra secretly wishing Asami would wake up.

But before giving up and going up to wake her wife, she noticed the scorched brown garments the kid was wearing.

"Would you like a bath?" The girl shook her head side to side, and stayed hunched over in her place, looking at Korra, whose mouth was agape. _What now?_ She knew how to deal with Meelo or Rohan not wanting to take a bath. She would waterbend the bath _onto_ them, and done deal, but she didn't think that strategy would go over well with the girl, neither with Asami for that matter. "Would you take a bath over some lychee nuts?" Korra was onto something. 

The girl thought it over and decided it was a fair trade and stood up, taking Korra's hand again, waiting to be led to the bathroom. Korra did so, quite impressed with herself, a smug smile on her face.

She filled the tub and gathered some towels and a Future Industries t-shirt for the girl to wear as a dress. But when she was about to leave the bathroom, she heard little steps following close behind her. She turned around.

"Go take your bath now, I'll be right here if you need me" the girl blinked and held her hand out. _This little rascal_. Korra couldn't help chuckling at her nerve. "Okay, wait here" she ran to the kitchen and returned with a bunch of lychee nuts. "You can have one" as soon as she placed it in the girl's open hand, she cracked the skin open and started sucking on the fruit, provoking another laugh from Korra "You can have the rest after your bath" with that said, the girl marched towards the bathroom, closing the door behind her. 

She waited seated on the ground right beside the bathroom door, listening carefully for any mishap. Naga came and waited with her, her big head resting on her lap. But the longer the girl took to come out, the more concerned Korra grew. Especially when steam started to seep from under the door.

"Is everything alright?" she knocked, but no one responded. "Oh, for Raava's sake, I'm coming in!" She warned before sliding the door open. She saw the girl with her hands up to her elbow in the tub, heating the bubbling water. "What in the-" Korra rushed to pull the little girl out, who looked more annoyed than in pain. 

"What were you doing?" She couldn't conceal the astonishment in her voice. She kneeled in front of the girl, taking her hands in hers, checking for any burns. They seemed intact, the blue tint to her scars coming down to the usual pink, Korra exhaled, relieved.

She looked up at the girl. She was wearing the t-shirt she gave her, only inside out with the logo facing backwards. She had also tried to recreate the topknot, but it had come undone and now hung sideways on her head. Only then Korra came to terms with how young the little girl actually was. 

"Do you need help?" she asked instead. The girl came closer and spoke in a whisper near Korra's ear:

"Can you make these better?" She was referring to her scars, Korra comprehended. She was trying to make the water glow blue as she had done the day before, cure her hands as Korra had. 

"Sorry, tiny, I can't do that" Korra read the implicit question in the girl's frown: _But why?_

“Because I can only cure injuries" she kneeled beside the girl "Your scars are already healed" Korra removed her bicep sleeve and showed the scar that laid on the skin below. "Scars are like the story of our own strength, written in our skin" she now showed her the faint markings in her wrists from Zaheer's restrictions so many years ago "They tell us just how much we are able to endure and overcome" she looked up at the girl. "And no matter how ugly we think the story is we have to learn to love it, cause it makes us who we are" 

The girl didn't seem as convinced as Korra.

"But until you learn to love them, you can have my gloves" Korra removed her fingerless gloves and helped the girl put them on. They looked way too big on her, covering almost her entire arm, but she seemed happy with them "Is that better?" Korra smiled at the girl's enthusiasm. "Now, you can keep them as long as you'd like, but Can I have something in return?" The girl nodded absently as she fidgeted with her new piece of clothing. "What's your name?" Korra held her breath, not really expecting a reply. 

"Akemi"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried writting something sweet, but ended up adding plot to it.  
> Hope you liked it!  
> Next one on Thursday


	9. Black and White

Asami came down the stairs lured by laughter. 

She knew she was late for work, that she was still in her nightgown and had overslept. But for the while she stood unnoticed at the base of the stairs, watching Korra and the girl play with Naga, she didn't care one bit.

Korra was making Naga perform tricks with blubbered seal jerky, fits of laughter coming from the girl every time Naga would do a silly pirouette trying to catch the jerky midair.

Naga was the first one to notice Asami once the treats were all gone. She ran up to her to greet her, licking Asami's cheek. 

"Good Morning to you too, Naga" Asami ruffled the polar-bear dog's head "What were you two doing?" She asked, the girl getting quiet all of a sudden.

"I was telling _Akemi_ about former Fire Lord Zuko, and how his scar was a big reason he became the great leader he was" she gave a significant look to the girl, and Asami knew something had happened while she was asleep. "He first was very ashamed of his scar, but learned to overcome it and came out the other side a better person" 

"But then Naga got hungry" the girl chimed in shyly, and Asami's jaw dropped. Korra had managed not only to learn the girl's name, but also get her to talk. The strings in Asami's heart seemed to pull in all kinds of different directions. She set her feelings aside with a slight shake of her head.

"Is that so, Akemi?" She smiled at the girl, glad to finally be able to call her by her name "What do you have there?" She asked when she noticed her wife's gloves sliding off Akemi's thin arm. The girl seemed to be about to say something but bit her tongue and looked up at Korra first. Korra nodded encouragingly, and Akemi gave a few wobbly steps towards Asami. She pulled on the woman's clothes and whispered in her ear when Asami came down to her level. 

"We can certainly arrange that" Asami laughed at the secret request, and as soon as she gave her approval, Akemi grabbed her hand and waited. Asami looked at Korra. 

"Yeah, that's her _thing,_ apparently" said Korra as she passed by her on her way to the bathroom "Can I leave you two ladies alone?" Akemi nodded and started tugging on Asami's arm.

"Korra…" Asami begged, unsure. Korra turned around and got closer to Asami lowering her voice, so Akemi couldn't hear.

"Just do her hair while I get ready and I'll take her to Lin, we'll figure things out as we go" she reassured, but Asami wasn't convinced, her doubt written in her frown "I know you like planning things out, but just try to have fun with it, it's only temporary" 

_It's only temporary_ Asami said to herself, as if it had just occurred to her, her body relaxing at the thought. _It's only temporary._ Korra was good at bringing her back to earth.

Out of the blue, she planted a kiss on Korra's lips a little too fiercely, grabbing her face with her free hand while Akemi held the other. Korra returned the favor, quickly overcoming the initial surprise biting Asami's lower lip as a parting gift, the kiss lasting a mere second. Korra quickly escaped into the bathroom with a smile, wondering what had gotten into her wife all of a sudden. 

Asami watched Korra go, heat climbing up to her cheeks when she noticed the two blue eyes staring at her from below. She cleared her throat and ushered the kid upstairs before she could open her mouth and start asking questions. 

Asami sat down in the bed and started combing the wet black hair with her fingers, the reflection of herself and Akemi staring back at her in the mirror in front of them. She looked at the girl's eyes, attentive, following Asami's fingers as they untangled knots delicately, trying not to pull too much on her hair. 

Asami noticed what seemed to be a topknot coming undone in silky strands at every pass of her hand, so she ran to her nightstand and pulled some pins to recreate the Fire Nation hairstyle. 

"Do you like it like that?" she held Akemi's hair up, making sure she approved before securing it with the pins. The girl nodded. "You know, my mom used to do my hair when I was little" a nostalgic stinging came with the memories. "Does your mom do the same?" she began pinning the topknot to the back of her head, but looked awry at the mirror, wanting to see the girl’s reaction. There was none.

"You don't want to talk about it" Asami bit her lip as she found the affirmative answer in the girl's reflection. But she kept pushing. "Why is that? Do you miss them?" The girl shifted uncomfortable and seemed about to cry. "I miss mine too" Asami said in a sigh, deflecting the attention from the girl, that seemed relieved.

"Why?" Akemi asked, looking up at her from the reflection. Asami paused, wanting to say the right thing.

"Some people leave a little empty space in our hearts when they go" Asami wanted to be gentle not to stir any bitter emotions on the girl. "My parents were like that" 

And even though Asami struggled to recall her mother most days, and the memories she had with her father were tainted, first by his actions and then by her guilt for taking so long to forgive him, she still couldn't shake the feeling of emptiness every time she remembered they were gone. An irreplaceable part of herself vanished forever, just like that.

But she was not about to tell that to a child. 

"I miss my heart feeling whole" she decided to say instead, the girl seemingly satisfied with the answer, "But you don't have to worry," she said as she stepped away from her work. She'd left some hair loose at the back and two black strands at each side of her face to frame her features. "You will talk with a nice lady today that will help you find your family" Asami said, too distracted tucking in some flyaways into the topknot to notice the change in Akemi's demeanor "We will have you back with your parents in no ti-" she didn't get to finish the sentence. Akemi sprinted away from her and down the stairs so fast Asami didn't even get to close her mouth before the girl was already at the front door, fighting with the doorknob.

“KORRA!” Asami yelled when her mind finally connected to her body “AKEMI WAIT! What happened?!” she ran down the stairs, her legs refusing to go at the speed she needed them to, especially as she saw the girl perform a lousy fire fist at the door, trying to burn it open, unsuccessfully. 

But as soon as she noticed Asami running after her, her hands fired up instantly, almost reflexively, lightning her forearm all the way up to her elbow in one single move. She then began punching the door, trying desperately to make it catch on fire. Asami kept going towards her despite not being sure the girl wouldn't aim at her in her current state.

Korra stepped out of the bathroom just in time. She came out with a water whip bent from the sink, ready to extinguish the glowing circle of flames that had started to form around where Akemi was punching furiously.

In a single move the whip was split into two blobs of water that shackled the girl's hands, instantly putting out the fire running up her arms. 

Akemi tried to ignite her hands again, but the two water cuffs although painless were pretty effective at keeping her firebending at bay. Akemi recognized she was trapped and started whimpering in frustration, looking around for another possible exit, seeing only Korra and Asami standing in front of her.

As a last resort she tried breathing fire at the door, but when she opened her mouth, instead of fire came out a cry, and then tears, no longer capable of containing her sadness tucked away.

"I am sorry, I am so sorry" Asami said, not sure what she was sorry about "I didn't mean to upset you, Akemi" maybe she was sorry about the girl being in so much pain and fear, the only thing she could do about it was run away from it.

Akemi was rolled up in fetal position, knees to her chest, arms covering her head, crying so hard the women could see the hiccups of every sharp breath she took convulse her whole little body. Tears started pouring inadvertently from Asami's eyes, as she sat on the ground besides the girl, took her into her arms and started rocking her out of instinct, feeling her heart would wither and rot away inside of her if she didn't get the girl to stop suffering. 

"You don't have to go anywhere" the girl tugged and pulled Asami's nightgown, burrowing her face in the engineer's chest, feeling the soft cloth dampening from her tears "You are safe with us" Asami kept repeating like a prayer "Nothing can hurt you now" she wanted it to be true, she wanted the Akemi to believe her. 

"Please don't make me go"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Angst is back with revenge!  
> Going back to one upload a week on Mondays now that the chapters are a tad longer.   
> Hope you liked this one! I really appreciate every comment so thank you :3


	10. Stay

A few hours had passed, and Korra and Asami had mostly managed to calm the girl down. Asami held her in her arms for a long time while Korra tried to divert her attention and make her laugh, every bubbly smile a ton off the women's chests.

But the uneasiness didn't disappear, even as they sat on the couch watching Akemi play with Naga as if nothing had happened, they couldn't shake the feeling of a ticking bomb about to go off. 

"Do you think _they_ did something to her?" Korra whispered when Asami filled her in about what triggered Akemi's fit. Asami lowered her head, staring at her hands.

"I am not sure, but she is definitely scared of something" Asami fidgeted with the hem of her shirt "Do you think it has something to do with that new triad?"

"It has to" Korra shuffled in the couch, suddenly restless "I have to see Lin" 

They had both abandoned their idea of this day being like any other, Asami deciding to take a day off and Korra opting to stay home, but she began regretting the decision, needing answers sooner rather than later.

"She’ll want to talk to Akemi, I’m surprised she hasn't dropped by yet" 

"I'll tell her she is not ready" Korra said "We know plenty already, she is probably Fire Nation, her name is Akemi, and how hard is it to find a child that firebends blue flame?"

"Maybe that's why the triad had her" Asami guessed "She is powerful enough at her age, maybe they were trying to weaponize the kids"

"But she seems to be the only bender of the bunch, and most are too young to show any promise of bending yet" Korra clicked her tongue in frustration "It's useless, we can theorize all we want, but that won't get us anywhere near finding out what happened to her, and how to fix it" the Avatar soften her gaze and looked at her wife "I need to do something about it, or I'll go crazy, I need to see Lin" the question was implicit.

"Go, I can take care of her, we'll be okay till you are back" Asami gave in "But please be back... soon" 

Korra leaned in to kiss Asami, slowly, almost longingly, cradling her face as she caressed her cheek with her thumb.

"I will" she said, still holding Asami's face, foreheads touching. "I'll bring dinner" Asami gave her a peck on the lips before Korra stood up. She took her glider and hurried towards the door, the black ring on the burnt wood still smoking slightly.

She was about to go out the door when she remembered she had another person to say goodbye to. Akemi had forgone of her and Naga's play and was now looking at her inquisitively. 

"I'll be back, tiny, don't worry" she said, kneeling down to Akemi's height, caressing the back of her head. The girl jumped onto Korra and held on to her in a tight embrace, looking distraught. Korra was taken by surprise and almost lost her footing, letting go of the glider that fell open on the floor. Akemi had never hugged her before.

She wrapped her arms around the girl, slowly returning the embrace, one hand on her back and other at her nape. She seemed so little and fragile between Korra's arms. She felt rage building up at the thought of someone ever wanting to hurt Akemi, but it wasn't only anger she felt, there was also this other sweeter kind of feeling at the sudden sign of affection.

"Korra will be back Akemi, she promised" Korra's eyes were closed, so she didn't notice Asami approaching, but thanked the intervention, a few seconds more and she wasn't sure she would have been able to leave the house without crying herself. 

"Yes, I promised, and I don't take my promises lightly" Korra said shakily, smiling at Akemi, before doubtfully kissing her forehead. It seemed like something her mother would do. She shook the thought out of her head, and went out the door in a hurry, not leaving time to change her mind.

And just like, that Asami was once again alone with Akemi, the girl still somewhat upset about Korra leaving. To be honest, she was kind of upset about it as well, burdened by the fact that right now, she was all Akemi had. _But only until Korra comes back_ she thought to herself _Only temporary._ The mantra helped her calm down.

An idea popped into her head.

"Do you like drawing?" She asked and the girl nodded enthusiastically. Asami relaxed just a little. "Come, we'll fetch some paper and colors from downstairs" Akemi held her hand unprompted again. Asami smiled involuntary, maybe she was starting to like it.

They went downstairs to Asami's workshop, and it was like entering another dimension. Not two days ago, that was the place Asami craved being at the most, second maybe to her and Korra's bedroom. But now, she hadn't even thought about the place, not even in the blueprint still rolled up, forgotten on her desk.

To Akemi it was something akin to a playground, judging by the look of sheer ecstasy in her eyes. Asami was pleasantly surprised when she ran towards the model she had been working on for the past few months. It was a scaled down prototype of a sand sailer, meant to be propelled without bending. Future Industries had been commissioned to create a small float of them, apparently for cheaper and more efficient transportation of goods through the Si Wong desert. It was a project Asami felt proud of, she had worked extensively on it and supervised the process all the way through completion, unlike most of the other projects she just got to greenlight. Turns out being the CEO came with a whole lot of work outside the workshop. 

The girl stepped into the sand sailer, and Asami came back to reality, suddenly painfully aware of how dangerous the whole place was for a child.

"Where is the sail?" Akemi asked, frowning at the model, critically. Asami raised an eyebrow.

"Those are the sails, actually" she pointed to the two D shaped pieces of cloth tensed over a thin metal structure that gave it its shape. The girl seemed to mull it over, not completely convinced about the modification and placed a hands over the shaft one of the sails was propped on, making it pivot and change direction. "That way you don't have to sandbend to change the rafter's course" added Asami, joining the girl on the sailer. 

"So even _I_ can drive it?" Akemi said with glee. Asami didn't know what could possibly be so interesting about a sand sailer to a child.

"Yes, in theory, but let's wait until you are older" Akemi jumped off the rafter looking rather disappointed. 

"They wouldn't let me drive it anyways" the girl said, roaming around the workshop looking at the sheets of paper plastering the walls, Asami following her "They said I would only burn it down to a _chisp_ " Asami wanted to know who these people Akemi was talking about were, but didn’t want to keep pushing her after today. She could only hope the girl would keep talking as long as she remained distracted. 

"That's a voltage tester" Asami pointed to the tool Akemi was looking at on her desk. It was a wooden box, with a bunch of knobs and a little scale behind a glass screen. 

"What does it do?" Akemi clung to the edge of the desk on her tiptoes, trying to get a better look at it. Asami helped and held her up.

"It measures the power of different kinds of energies" Asami tried explaining as simply as she could. The girl played a while with the knobs, watching how the needle on the scale moved "Who said you would burn the sailer down to a crisp?" Asami ask subtly.

"The sandbenders" Akemi answered mindlessly. _Well, that isn’t incredibly specific_ Asami thought, she had guessed that much. But it was useful nonetheless, maybe she was smuggled from one of the Fire Nation colonies to the Si Wan desert and ended up with the sandbenders. How she made it all the way to Republic City, though, was a harder guess. 

Akemi grew tired of the tester and asked Asami to get down. As soon as her feet touched the ground, she ran to the opposite end of the room, towards the most dangerous device on the workshop, Asami choking on her own heart. 

"What's that?" Akemi pointed at the welder machine, keeping her distance. Asami placed a hand on Akemi’s shoulder to keep her away, but figured she was better off teaching her than to scold her for getting close. 

"It's a welding machine, it produces blue fire, just like you" Akemi turned around and look up at her, her face glowing with mirth. 

"Really?" she said, and Asami wondered if she had made a mistake, watching the girl's spike in interest. "But why would you need blue fire?"

"Well, I use it to join pieces of metal together, It's quite useful, actually" the girl came closer to the welding mask that laid near the machine "But it's dangerous if you don't know how to use it, so don’t come close without me, I don’t want you getting hurt, understood? the girl backed off and nodded. "What do _you_ use your blue fire for, Akemi?" Asami asked after a while. 

"I heat the sand and make it rain diamonds" she said, spreading her arms up at the end of the sentence. Asami didn't know if she was being serious or not "Can I draw now?"

Asami gather some paper and every marker she could find and settled the girl at the coffee table near the couch, eyeing the blueprint, wondering if she could get some work done while Akemi drew.

She sat at her desk and stared at the the blueprint that took over half the surface, a shiver going down her spine. She looked over some drawers for her notes, and looked at it again, confirming what she already knew. It was pretty much done, there was nothing more to add, or nothing she could think of anyways, as she had kept it pretty much a secret from the other engineers of Future Industries. She told herself it was for practical reasons: she needed to figure it out on her own, make sure it was viable and _ethical_ before she was to disclose it to the rest on the company and started to pour resources into it. But now facing that next step, she rapidly realised that from the beginning something didn’t feel _right_. 

Maybe the distrust came from her own past experience with a similar technology, after everything General Guan and Dr. Sheng put her through. Despite all of that, she felt the need to pull through the discomfort, and keep working on the project, needing to make something good out of that past trauma. But for that to happen, she had to actually tell someone about it. 

_Not now_ , she thought, closing her eyes, and then looking at Akemi still drawing, a few feet away from her. She had enough to deal with for now. So she grabbed a ruler and started taking measures for the untenth time, writing down each number on her notebook, making sure she was using a consistent scale throughout before she started making plans on building the first prototype.

Asami had the habit of getting caught on her work, hours passing by her unnoticed, but she knew she couldn’t let herself do that while looking after a kid, so every once in a while she would look up to check on Akemi. That was Until she found a discrepancy in her notes and got distracted: the next time she remembered to look at the coffee table, no one was there. But before she could panic, she felt a tug on her clothes. Akemi was besides her, drawing in hand, calling for her attention. 

"What are you doing?" She asked sheepishly. 

"Working" Asami answered with a smile "Wanna come here and take a look?" Before she could finish the sentence, Akemi was already climbing up her lap, without letting go of her picture. 

"What is this?" She asked, tracing her little fingers along the lines of the blueprint. 

"It's a drawing of a machine" she explained.

"What does it do?" Would Asami ever get used to this many questions? She sighed before she responded.

"It helps people remember or forget memories" That's to put it simply, but she couldn't come up with a better explanation. 

"Does it work?" 

"Not yet, I'm working on it" Asami waited for more questions, but silence fell upon them. She expected Akemi to jump off her lap and resume her drawing, but instead she turned her head to look at Asami and asked one last thing:

"Can I work with you?" Asami half smiled, her whole body feeling warm and fuzzy. The girl didn't really care about what she was working on, she was just looking for an excuse to be near Asami.

"Yeah, why not" Akemi smiled wide and placed her picture on top of the blueprint, resuming her drawing. 

Despite her companion taking over most of the space on the desk, Asami managed to get some work done, making sure no other project got neglected or delayed because of her skipping work. But from time to time, the sight of Akemi would caught her eyes enough to stop what she was doing, her profile lit by the warm glow of the desk lamp, her eyes painted a deeper hue of blue as she focused, trying to replicate Asami’s writing, wobbly lines barely resembling letters and symbols smudging the paper. Asami wanted to ask what she was drawing, but found that it would disrupt this new peace they seemed to be surrounded by, so she kept working alongside the child, in silence.

After a while slumber fell onto Akemi, drowsing off right then and there, reluctant to give up her privileged spot at Asami’s desk. The engineer noticed the marker trailing off the paper, still on the child’s hand, her head slumping heavily to the side. Asami cradled her, ready to put her down to sleep on the couch, but with Akemi’s head weighting on her shoulder, and her arms idly laced around her neck as she slept, suddenly Asami didn’t feel like letting go of the child either. 

So, she stayed, a hand on Akemi’s back, holding her in place as she worked, feeling her breathe deep and steady. She stayed, even when there was no more work to be done, she stayed, humming a lullaby she didn’t know she remembered. Asami stayed, until she too fell asleep. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A more lighthearted chapter after last one. Also, Google Drive decided to stop saving midway through, so I had to write it twice.   
> So, specially for this one: hope you liked it.   
> Next one on Monday!


	11. The Raid

Korra’s head was in the clouds as she glided past the Spirit Portal on her way to the police station. The thoughts about today’s events crowded her mind, a bittersweet taste lingering when she remembered Akemi. She wanted to do right by her, find what was haunting her and make it disappeared in a way she knew surpassed her duties as the Avatar. But it felt personal. 

The screaming coming from below ripped her out of her own mind and into a chaotic reality. She looked down to see a full on riot taking place around the portal, protestors barreling down every blockade the police set in an attempt to contain the masses without counterattacking. 

But Korra knew better. To the officers down below it may have looked like a protest gone wrong, but from the sky Korra could map out the strategy of an attack. Fire and Waterbenders lead the formation, fighting off the officers, opening the way for the earthbenders that followed. These ran straight to the cylinder surrounding the portal to try and bend it out of existence. Last came the non benders, most of them with electric gloves and black and white paint staining their faces in a pattern now all too familiar to Korra.

They all moved protectively around this one man standing in the core of the formation. He sticked out from the others solely by his way of moving, he didn’t appear to be stepping onto anything, almost as if he was floating inches away from the ground. Not only his face was painted, but his entire body, showing off a bare torso, puffed with pride as his army opened the way for him.

They were the triad Akemi had escaped from, there was no doubt in Korra’s mind. They had used the protestors as a smokescreen to shield themselves, knowing the police would never attack civilians.

Korra folded the glider mid-air, feeling herself pick up speed as she fell, manipulating the wind currents around her, guiding her exactly where she wanted to land: on top of the shirtless leader. If someone knew about what happened to Akemi, it was him.

She wrapped her legs around the man's neck, the boost of the fall helping her along as she took him down to the ground, face first. But the Leader recovered quickly from the surprise attack and caught himself, throwing Korra off his shoulders.

Korra punched fire at him from the ground, but was forced to duck before the attack could reach the target, an electric lighting scraping her ear, making the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. She found herself quickly surrounded by the Leaders lackeys, every single one of them more than eager to take her down. 

She drained the water from the vines they were standing on, and as one of the lackeys went to fire his electric glove, Korra engulfed the entire arm with a water cuff, the electricity from his own weapon shocking the attacker out of consciousness. She repeated the process as they kept coming faster than she could fight them off. She shackled some of them to the ground with earthbending, trying to get them out of the way to get to the leader that kept getting farther and farther away from her, and towards the portal.

"I NEED SOME BACKUP HERE!" she said, breathing fire as she screamed, fighting off a gloved hand that came towards her chest. 

She suddenly felt something wrapping around her waist and before she could untangled herself from its grasp, it janked her upwards, kicking the breath out of her lungs as the wire tightened around her in its way up.

"WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU ALL MORNING?" Lin's yelling thriunfed over the roaring wind in her ears. Korra gasped for air as a response. "QUIT WASTING YOUR TIME WITH THOSE LOSERS, THEY BREACHED THE PORTAL" Lin was hanging by a metal cable from a blimp coursing the air, Korra dangling below her.

"The Leader!" Korra was scanning the ground frantically, searching for the bulky man in the masses below. 

"My metalbenders can deal with him" Lin yelled as she swung Korra in the air "The airbenders need you at the portal" Beifong let go of the Avatar, the cable unwrapping from her waist in a single swoop, scratching Korra's skin through her clothes. 

Korra shot fire from her feet trying to slow down the fall but landed sloppily on the vines. Before she could recover, a water whip to her shoulder blade made her fall back again to the ground. She turned around on her back just in time to see a waterbender jumping onto her, wielding an icicle. She rolled around out of her reach and with a sweep move of her hand launched a block of earth forwards hitting the waterbender fully on the chest. 

Korra stood up and ran to the portal, deflecting the the various attacks flying in her direction, feeling how increasingly difficult stepping forward was getting. She looked up and on top of the earth cylinder, guarding the portal, stood the airbenders, that instead of picking the invaders one by one, were trying to blow then away all at once. 

Korra bent the gusts of wind to go around her, avoiding her body, letting her run at full speed. Through the blowing wind, leaves and dust, Korra could see the earthbending members of the triad with their hands sunken in the earth cylinder, grounding themselves despite the hurricane. They were trying to breach the barrier by ripping one chunk of earth at a time, until a gap big enough for them to get through was created, unable to bend more aggressively without being blown away. 

Korra screamed as a column of fire exited her fists and traveled to the nearest earthbender, the flames invigorated by the wind. He lost his grounding trying to deflect the attack and was sent flying back, away from the portal. Korra filled in the hole the earthbender had created and moved on to the next.

But as the second triad member was kicked away from the portal, from the corner of her eye Korra saw the Leader. He was standing stoic in the eye of the storm, sheltered from the ciclon revolving around him. The paint was smudged from his chest, except from a jet black stain that covered the entire left side of his torso. Korra smiled when she spotted the electric glove on his hand, that wasn't there before.  _ You didn't plan on getting your hands dirty, huh? _

Korra pondered for a second, struggling to choose between keep fighting the earthbenders or go straight to the Leader.

She didn't need too much time to make up her mind. Korra knew the Leader wouldn't be able to see her from inside the eye of the hurricane, so she figured she may as well take the advantage.

She propelled herself into the air with a block of earth that pierce through the vines on its way out. The Leader backed away when he saw her coming foot first. The kick landed on the side of his face, making him tumbled back, almost at the edge of the sheltered spot.

He spat blood and smiled slyly as he said "I hear you have my cub" Korra responded with a fire fist to his chest. He dodged it and made Korra lose her footing by kicking her knee. Korra managed to stabilized herself fast enough, stopping the electric hand going towards her. She grabbed him by the wrist and twisted it back until she heard a  _ pop _ . The Leader screamed and Korra, taking a liking to bringing his enemy down with their own weapons, placed the charged glove on the Leader's thigh, that glowed blue, electricity coursing through his body.

Korra stood back watching the man convulse, thinking it would be any second now before he collapsed into the ground. But when he looked up at her, she knew the fight wasn't over. His eyes exuded defiance as he moved his glove from his thigh to the black marking on his chest, a wretched laughter pouring from his mouth like black tar, it made Korra shiver. 

Instantly she could tell the gusts of wind were losing power around them, but for the love of Raava couldn't figure out why. Until she saw it, exiting the eye of the hurricane, she saw it, open mouthed and frozen in panic. From the holes on the barrier escaped black and purple spirits- evil spirits, like she hadn't seen since Harmonic Conversion.

She looked at the Leader, ravishing in his own power.He seemed to be summoning them.

Korra looked up when a screeching sound called on her attention. A huge spirit that seemed to keep growing in size by the second knocked down a few airbenders from the top of the cylinder in a single swoop. She spotted Jinora falling down to the ground semi unconscious and ran to her rescue, catching her before she touched her ground. She propped her up to her feet, watching her lidded eyes flutter.

"Someone is making them this way, they seem possessed" she looked up at the spirit, its purple markings glowing furious as it screeched again, destroying the top of the cylinder. Korra deflected the earth debris falling over their heads.

Korra looked back at were the Leader was a second ago as she put Jinora down in a safe place, eager to finish what she'd started. But now his whole army was circling him, their bidding now being done by the gigantic spirit that kept destroying the barrier around the portal. 

She knew she wouldn't be able to get through all of them before the spirit completely obliterated the barrier, not even in the Avatar state. And if the Leader held so much power with spirits in  _ this _ world, she didn't want to know what would happen if left to roam in their realm.

Korra climbed up what was left of the earth cylinder, and yelled at the spirit. Without enough water around to spirirbend it back to sanity, talking would have to suffice.

"HEY" It seemed like a good introduction. “OVER HERE!” The spirit actually acknowledged Korra and stopped its destruction for a second "I'm the Avatar, I'm the bridge between our worlds, I created this portal. Whatever it is you need, I can help you" The spirit either didn't understand what Korra was saying or didn't care, cause without a pause it slapped her off the cylinder and towards the ground with his humongous hand, his anger renewed.

Korra landed on the ground feeling dizzy, his vision blurry as she got back to her feet, wobbly. She saw powerless how the spirit kicked what was left of the barrier into oblivion, a battle cry coming from the triad members as they lunged at the portal.

Korra fought against her weakness, standing tall as white light started leaking from her eyes. She felt Raava's power coursing through her veins, feeding her, a sphere of wind picking her up from the ground, until she was eye to eye with the Spirit. 

She summoned the water flowing a mile away, and surrounded the spirit with it, glowing with energy as Korra tamed it back to its original form. But her work had just begun. The army stopped on its tracks when beams of fire and dirt started raining down on them like meteorites under Korra’s control. She picked up the wind, that started twirling around her once again. 

She saw the Leader, now deprived of an army, running towards the exposed portal. Korra roared with the anger of all her past lives, and aimed her wrath at him. She called on the water within the vines, reaping from the ground as they came to her, now at her mercy. Her grasp reached the leader, the vines wrapping around him like a hungry serpent, his electric glove useless. Korra faced the helpless Leader, and found he was smiling. 

"Look around, Avatar" and Korra did, some of the members of the triad were mere feet away from entering the portal. Korra screamed a column of fire towards her prisoner before throwing him against a nearby building, hoping someone would capture him. She had more pressing matters to attend to.

She used the vines as tentacles, and slapped away every souls that got too close to the portal before letting herself fall. Her feet created a small quake as they touched the ground, the remaining members of the triad running away from her when she lifted the vines from under their feet and as if with lives of their own, the vessels started contracting around their bodies. 

With the portal safe from intrusions, she grounded herself, deep in horse stance, croaking her hands in the crowding bridge position. Korra then single handedly erected a new barrier around the portal, taller than the previous one, feeling the pull as she ripped the earth beneath her feet, and willed it in front of her, drops of sweat coursing her brow. 

Korra fell to her knees exhausted, the earth no longer trembling under her, her eyes back to their usual blue. She saw Lin, Jinora, the officers, airbenders and even some bystanders looking at her in awe when she turned around, feeling her muscles turn to putty beneath her skin as she walked back to them.

"Does someone know about an authentic Fire Nation restaurant around here?" She asked with a playful grin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This chapter was really fun to write but a pain to revise, so sorry if I made any mistakes, writing action sequences in English was a challenge.  
> That said, hope you liked it! 
> 
> (Also, sorry for the late upload, I was without power all day yesterday)


	12. Only a Day

Asami woke up with killer neck pain, but in the darkness of her own room. She stretched a hand to the side expecting to find Korra’s warm body, but instead she found Akemi, curled up next to her. She propped herself up on one elbow waiting for her eyes to adjust to the darkness, the blue light of the morning seeping through the window letting her see the tousled sheets in Korra’s side of the bed. 

_At least she got some sleep._

Not wanting to disrupt Akemi, she stood up slowly, a pillow taking her place in the bed. She covered the girl with an extra blanket, and when she leaned in, she noticed a dark spot on the mattress near Korra’s pillow. It couldn’t be blood, could it?

"Korra?" She asked hoarsely, seeing light coming from under the door. Rushing out of the bedroom and down the stairs, she found Korra in the kitchen, eating flaming fire flakes by the dozen. 

"What in Raava's name happened to you?" Asami exclaimed, the sleepiness wearing off of her as she saw her wife, bed hair, pajamas and scratches all over her face and body. She got closer and examined an especially nasty cut on her shoulder blade.

"A lot" Korra kept chewing "Have some leftovers" she pointed towards the kitchen counter "I thought Akemi would like some Fire Nation dishes, so I got roasted turtle duck, and some dumpling-looking pastries"

"Moshi?" Asami raised an eyebrow.

"Oh yeah, those, I sometimes forget you have Fire Nation ancestry" she gobbled another fistful of fire flakes "Anyways, I got home last night, but you two were asleep- which reminds me, we should feed her earlier, she goes down way sooner than us, and I guess kids are supposed to have dinner before 3am anyways. We don't have the healthiest habits, you know?" Korra was talking so fast Asami feared she would inevitably choke either on the flakes or on her own words. She sat down at the table next to her and placed a hand over Korra's. 

"Slow down” Asami interrupted her incessant babbling “What is it?” Korra swallowed hard and looked down.

"I know something about Akemi" she confessed, the words sending a shiver down Asami's spine. She remained stoic nonetheless, squeezing Korra's hand in encouragement. "I think I know why she doesn't want to go back" 

"Start from the beginning" Asami prompted her gently, and Korra started talking, slowly this time. She told Asami about the attack, how the Leader seemed to be controlling the spirits, about them raiding the portal. How the Leader referred to Akemi as ‘his cub’.

“He had black markings covering the left side of his chest” Korra took a hand to her pec and down to her ribs “They weren’t like Akemi’s scars, nor like the other children’s either, but it can’t be a coincidence” 

“How about the other triad members?” Asami asked.

“No, they were painted all over, but the ones that got caught didn’t have any scar at all” Korra responded. 

“That means the police has some members in their custody, that’s good, isn’t it? Maybe they’ll be able to get some information out of them” 

“I don’t know about that, I stuck around long enough to see some of the questioning, most didn't say a word, and the ones that did kept repeating the same thing about not betraying _the family_ ’” Realization struck Asami.

“Now I get why Akemi got so upset” 

“Yeah, I wouldn't want to go back to _that_ family either” without realizing, they both looked up the stairs towards the bedroom, where Akemi was resting.

“What about the other kids? Did you get a chance to talk to Lin about it?” 

“Yeah, about that...” Asami grew concerned at Korra’s hesitation “They were able to locate almost every family, most of the kids were Earth Kingdom. The rest seem to be orphans, so they were placed in temporary care here in Republic City until they can find something more permanent for them, you know… families" Asami was still waiting for the bad news to drop, but Korra seemed to have finished talking. 

“That’s good, isn’t it?” She said, confused “Why do you have that look on your face?” 

“Lin asked me if she should list Akemi for adoption as well, along with the other kids”

 _Oh, so that's what’s up_.

“They didn’t find her family?” Korra shook her head and a heavy silence fell upon them. “That doesn’t mean anything, it’s still too soon, her family could be out there still” Asami sounded a tad desperate. 

“All the other kids were missing for at least six month before they were found, plenty of time for a family to report a disappearance” Now was Korra the one holding Asami’s hands tightly “That means the unclaimed kids are either orphans or their families live so far off the grid they don’t have access to a police station. You know where the odds are at, Sami” Asami knew it made sense, but she didn’t want it to, it hurt her to think Akemi didn't have a family to miss her, to be expecting her, a family to return to.

“Wait” Asami said, putting the pieces together “Would you say the tribes in the Si Wong Desert are secluded?” 

“I guess so, Why?”

“Earlier today she took an interest to the sand sailer in my office, she mentioned the sandbenders” Asami looked thrilled “We can still find her home” Someone had to be looking for Akemi, she couldn’t fathom the girl’s disappearance going unnoticed. 

“If what you say is true, what is a firebender child doing in the Si Wong Desert? it doesn’t make any sense, it can't be anything legal!" Asami didn’t expect Korra to get so upset about it “The Si Wong tribes are centuries old, formed by generation after generation of _earthbenders_ " 

“You don’t want her to go, do you?” Asami interrupted Korra’s rant. The Avatar fell silent, gaping mouth, trying to find her words. 

"It's not about that, I-" Korra stammered "I just want answers" 

"And you also want her to stay" Asami wasn't asking a question, it was a statement. Korra looked at her with pleading eyes, but Asami lowered her head.

"We need to find a way to make Akemi talk without upsetting her" Korra's voice sounded resigned. "That's what it comes down to ultimately" 

And as if summoned by Korra's words, Akemi appeared at the base of the stairs. The women had been so entrenched in their conversation; they didn't hear her coming. She was still wearing the gloves Korra gave her, lacing a loose strand of hair around her finger. 

"Hey, tiny, what are you doing up? It’s still early” Korra asked, her voice softening. Akemi didn't respond, but quickly approached the women and held her hands up to Korra. The Avatar looked at her wife as she picked Akemi up, her eyes widening in surprise when the girl instantly cuddled up to her, as she had only done with Asami. The voice that muttered into the Avatar’s neck was soft, almost imperceptible, but Korra heard her.

"You’re back" it said relieved and as if the planets had suddenly aligned, something clicked in Korra's head. She felt a fire lit up in her chest, a fire that seemed to have always been there, only lightless. It felt warm, but abrasive, scorching her with its meaning, what it implied moving forwards and for the rest of her life, _their_ lives. She didn't want Akemi to leave. Asami was right.

"Of course I am, didn't I promise?" Korra responded, the words catching in her throat. Only silence came from the girl, who just shrugged, and closed her eyes. Korra rested her chin on Akemi's head and started rocking her back to sleep.

Asami saw the fire in Korra as well, and her stomach twisted, painfully. 

_It's been only a day,_ she thought. 

Yeah, for them, it may have only been a day. But for Akemi it was the finish line of a long, tiring race that had once known no end. But she had finally found something, something she was too young to fully comprehend, but could discern nonetheless. It was something similar to the love and security she once had to let go. She was not letting go this time. 

Asami saw that too, she knew Akemi had chosen them before she even dare to have a say in the matter. She felt it in the pull of her own heart, screaming bloody murder at her attempts to shut it down. Because Korra was better than her at knowing when to give in and letting herself be led even if she didn't know where to. Asami needed the clear path, an end goal to work towards.

But she also trusted Korra’s judgment and Asami would have to trust again, because she knew that nipping the feeling in the bud to protect herself would only hurt Akemi, and she was adamant not to put her through anything more. 

Of course, that didn't mean she wasn't still terrified. 

"I'm sorry" Asami said, standing up abruptly when she felt the tears beginning to cloud her view. Korra muttered something and threatened to follow her, but didn't, Akemi finally asleep in her lap. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I split this chapter into two parts, cause it was getting long.  
> Next part on Monday, but know it’s a direct continuation of this one.  
> Hope you liked it!
> 
> Also, thank you for the nice comments, it really encourages me to keep writing :)


	13. What If

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Direct continuation of last chapter! Enjoy!

Asami disappeared into her workshop, the smell of grease and oil already giving her some peace of mind. But as soon as she stepped inside, the view of the blueprint still on display on her desk welcomed her, stirring another set of uncomfortable feelings. She stood still, looking at it, before making up her mind, fed up.

She needed to get at least that one thing out of her mind. So, she folded it up and began writing a note to the bioengineers of Future Industries, she needed everyone to approve the model before going forward. But mid-sentence, her pen ran out of ink.

Knowing she was one sign of the universe away from setting the whole thing on fire, she scrambled the drawers looking for a replacement, not caring about the mess of papers building up around her, until she found one. She finished the note and attached it to the blueprint along with the obsolete Earth Kingdom model she had based hers on. Tomorrow the whole thing would become someone else's problem.

Picking up the papers scattered on the floor, she found something else, stuck to the sole of her boot. She gasped in horror when she realized what it was, and started flattening the crumbled edges of the picture, a dark oil stain darkening one corner. 

She had forgotten about the picture. She had kept it in her desk for ages, telling herself she would someday frame it and hang it in the living room, along with the pictures of their wedding, of Ikki’s arrow ceremony, of Future Industries fortieth anniversary. But she had never gotten herself to do it.

She sat in the couch, looking at her younger self in the picture. She was around Akemi's age when the photo was taken. His father sat on her left, looking like the man she preferred to remember him as: the warm, compassionate dad she had looked up to as a child, who had raised her and the man she could thank for everything she now had, from the company, her career, to Korra. She would have been a different person without him.

Her father had an arm around her mother, who stood tall and beautiful behind her to the right. Growing up, Hiroshi would always tell her how much Asami reminded him of her mother. And Asami used to look at the picture, and hope that one day she'd grow up to look just like her. 

Well, that day had come and passed, Asami was now around the age her mother had been when the picture was taken, but she didn't feel one bit like her mother. To begin with, Asami didn't look, well… like a _mother_ at all. The thought alone seemed foreign in her head. Her mother had been composed, loving, comforting. And dead. That too. Her mother was dead, had been for so long, and her father too. She wasn't one to dwell too much on the past, but lately, she couldn't stop thinking about it. 

Just as she was about to put the picture away to once again be forgotten hidden in a drawer, Asami heard Korra's hesitant steps down the stairs. She stopped mid-flight:

"Can I come in?" Korra had the face she often wore when she knew she had screwed up, a face vaguely resembling a regretful polar bear puppy

Asami patted the seat next to her on the couch, and scooted over. Korra let an unconscious sigh of relief escape her lips as she sat down next to Asami and cautiously wrapped an arm around her.

"I think I owe you an apology" Korra said, kissing Asami's hair as this one rested her head on the Avatar's shoulder. 

"Do you?" Asami was curious about where this was going. 

"Yeah, I said you weren't being honest with me" She recalled the fight they had just the day before, now seemingly a life ago. "But I was the one being disingenuous" 

"How so?" As she spoke, Korra started mindlessly tracing circles along Asami's thigh with her free hand. 

"I had myself convinced that I didn't care whether we had children or not. As long as I was with you" she paused, her hand stopping its motion. "But I think I was wrong"

"So, you want to have kids" Asami said in a whisper. 

"No, I don't know that I want to" Asami pivoted slightly in her seat to look at her confused, but before she could open her mouth, Korra continued "I don't want to have kids, I want _Akemi_ to be my kid… ours" Asami shifted uncomfortable in her seat, but said nothing. "But you already told me how you feel about it, and I promised myself I wouldn’t let my feelings steamroll over yours" Korra swallowed "You are the constant I want to keep forever in my life, the rest I can do without”

Asami turned around to face her wife.

"Korra, she's only been here a day, a single day, you know nothing about her, she could still have parents out there, looking for her" she didn't realize, but her grip around the picture had grown tighter. 

"I know, I know" Korra calmed Asami by placing a firm hand on her shoulder, as if to ground her, not letting her float away from her. "I have been telling myself that over and over since I saw you step out the alleyway with her in your arms" Asami lowered her head "But even back then I knew there was no coming back, I think you know it too, otherwise you wouldn't be freaking out right now" she half smiled "We have rescued kids before, we have taken care of them, but this is different, this _feels_ different"

"But what if it isn't, what if we get attached and we find her home" Asami said, raising her eyes up to Korra's. 

"Then I'll gladly take that bullet for her" Korra said with certainty "I will love her as my own until she no longer is" Korra's voice betrayed the pain that scenario brought, but kept going "Asami, as much as I want to know what will happen tomorrow or the day after that, I can't. What I can do is making sure she has everything she needs, until she needs me no more, whenever that time comes" 

"You seem set about this" Asami stared at the photo in her hands like her past and future were written on it. And in a way, maybe they were.

"I don't think I have a choice at this point" Korra laughed darkly " _You_ , however still do. But I don't want you getting hanged up on the endless ways this could not happen" Korra let go of Asami's shoulder "I need to know where you stand if this _does_ happen: what if Akemi didn't have any family waiting for her?" the weight of the words made her voice flicker "What if she could be part of our family instead, despite me being the Avatar, despite our lives being dangerous, hectic or unpredictable" Korra had been talking to Asami's lowered head for a while now "You like planning ahead, Sami, _what if_ " 

Asami didn't respond, she didn't even raise her head to look her in the eyes as the finality of her answer grew stronger with every passing second in silence.

"That's okay" Korra spoke, trying to sound reassuring through the disappointment "I'll tell Lin tomorrow morning, don't worry" she kissed her wife's lowered forehead as she walked towards the stairs.

Asami wiped the tear that fell onto the photograph glued to her hand.

" _What If_ I am not made for this" Asami tried for her voice to sound steady, but it cracked midway through, and when she finally raised her head Korra saw the tears coursing through her cheeks. 

"I can't even recall my own mother, how can I expect to be one" Korra knew when to shut up, and this was when. She sat at her wife's side, a hand going up and down her back, Asami’s elbows on her knees as she grabbed her own head. "And Hiroshi? He was a wonderful father when he wasn't busy mourning my mother or weaponizing the city against benders" Asami cracked up at the absurdity, but quickly regained composure. She turned around to look at her wife, a hand cupping her cheek.

"I want kids Korra, I want kids with _you_ " Korra leaned in to the touch "And I couldn't care less about you being the Avatar, you are more than that, you have so much more to offer besides the four elements" Asami paused, suddenly remembering something "And why would you think I don't want kids because you are a woman, why would I care about that? I married you, didn't?" Korra smiled at the scolding "It's not that I don't want kids, it's that I don't think I should be a mother" she looked at the picture once again.

Korra wanted to punch herself for not realizing sooner what Asami's apprehension around having children was really about. She remained silent for a second, choosing her words carefully. 

"If that is what this is about, let me put your worries to rest" Korra said lightly "You have the mother instinct thing down, Sami, it's almost creepy" Asami didn't know if she appreciated the trivial tone to Korra's voice "You know what to do and you don't even try, it's your nature" she nudged Asami's chin upwards "You are nurturing, selfless, and you make everything around you better, and I would know" Korra smiled "I don't want you missing out on what you want because you are afraid" Asami got closer to Korra and hid her face on her chest "Fear is not always bad, sometimes it just means something matters… a lot" Korra embraced Asami tighter, her lips caressing the soft strands of hair "And besides, you don’t have to do this alone like your father did. You’ll always have me, even If I am also terrified. We'll simply take turns freaking out, now is your turn; if she ends up being a wolf-bat fan, I'll lose it next, and so on" Asami's laugh felt like flutter of wings against Korra's chest.

They stayed like that, comfortably in each other’s arms, Asami’s irregular breathing becoming steadier as Korra gently combed her hair with her fingers. After a while, the Avatar noticed the photograph in her wife’s hands.

"It's crazy how much you look like her" she pinpointed Asami’s mother in the picture.

"You really think so?"

"Yeah, let me…" Korra gathered Asami's hair in a bun at the back of her head, in a similar style to the woman in the picture "See? Twins" Asami looked at her, unable to repress the smile Korra’s side grin provoked. 

“You always know what to say, don’t you?” Asami laughed, leaning in for a kiss. 

“Do I?” Korra said, returning the kiss, her arms going for Asami’s waist.

“Look, I don’t want Akemi to go either” Asami admitted out of the blue, foreheads touching “But we need to do everything in our power to find her family, if she has one” Korra nodded in agreement “But in the meantime, we are totally underprepared” Asami broke apart and Korra could practically hear the cogs turning inside her head “We need clothes, and toys, we could ask Pemma. I don’t think she is ready for daycare yet; we’ll have to take turns. Maybe I can see about working from home for a while, and-” Korra planted a kiss on the corner of Asami’s mouth, startling the woman. 

"That sounds more like it!" She knew Asami going into planning mode could only be good "I'll take her with me tomorrow, Lin wanted to try talk to her anyways. You sort things out at work, and pick up some clothes for her on your way home, sounds good?" 

"You've been thinking about this, haven't you?" Asami smiled.

"One day at a time" Korra reminded, giving her another peck on the lips. But when she was leaning away, Asami trapped her, deepening the kiss as she pinned her down to the couch. 

"What is this about?" she asked with a chuckle, breathing ragged as Asami kissed her neck. Not that she was complaining: Korra grabbed her wife by the hips, pulling her closer, her hands venturing up her back beneath the clothing.

"Don't know if you noticed, but I've been kinda stressed out lately" Asami's breath felt hot against Korra’s lips, her urgency escalating.

"Letting off some steam?" she said, smiling into the kiss. Asami murmured a vague affirmation, no longer interested in keeping the chat going "In that case" Korra broke apart and propped herself up, pushing Asami's back against the cushions, straddling her body. She started kissing her neck down her clavicle, feeling the pulse beneath the blushed skin. "Don't let me fall asleep, though" she unzipped Asami’s jacket "I promised I'd be right ba-" Asami shut her up with a kiss, any words disappearing in a grunt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Early upload cause I’m away next Monday.  
> This chapter was a mess of emotions, but I guess it's suitable for the occasion.   
> Hope you liked it!


	14. Nilak and Nuniq

“So, Akemi, what do we say if we get upset?” Korra questioned as she buttoned the girl’s cardigan. 

"Back off, I'm about to firebend!" this one said seriously, standing upright with a frown, a hand on each hip. Korra smiled approvingly and held her hand up for Akemi.

“ _Please_ back off” corrected Asami, zipping up her own jacket. She looked worried, Korra noticed, and she couldn’t really blame her. Asami tried keeping a relaxed demeanor for Akemi's sake, the kid was more receptive than one would expect from a four-year-old, but Korra could see right through it.

A few weeks had gone by since Akemi's arrival, and Asami and Korra were now officially her legal guardians. Until they got further news on her family, that was. And by further they meant any news at all, as there hadn't been any so far.

The lack of information came from all fronts. Korra had figured that they would get leads on Akemi's past through learning more about this new triad, specially their leader, but the situation had reached a plateau after the attack to the portal. For a while the pressure was on finding the abducted kids' families, but once the police managed to place every child, and with no new incidents caused by the triad, priorities soon shifted, and things started to slip through the cracks. Even with the anonymous leader still on the loose, the issue was settled with day-round surveillance on the portal and a few 'wanted' posters. After all, with his army dismembered, the leader didn't pose much of a threat anymore, or so the city officials thought, cause unlike Korra, they hadn't seen his influence over the spirits. Who needed an army when they had evil entities doing their bidding?

The Avatar still made sure to regularly update Lin with whatever bit of information they managed to get from Akemi, but the girl didn't say much. And after telling Lin about the sandbenders Akemi often talked about, Korra got the feeling the chief started doubting the girl's credibility. It probably didn’t help that she still wasn’t able to question Akemi in a formal setting, an annoyance Lin didn’t shy away from rubbing in their faces. 

They had tried taking Akemi out of the house right away, but it became clear pretty quickly such thing was not going to happen. As soon as they crossed the front door Akemi wouldn't want to leave Asami's arms and she'd be so terrified and jumpy her hands would ignite at the slightest provocation. The women couldn't bring themselves to force her after the first few tries, and settled with taking things slow.

First, they got her to play in the garden with Naga, then to the park a block away, and after figuring out the Akemi’s love for food had no limits: to the ice cream shop. 

And as the days passed the women saw Akemi's true personality start to show through. Once she understood Korra and Asami weren't going anywhere she became less clingy and bolder, the initial fear replaced by a fierce curiosity that had them running around after her, making sure she wouldn't hurt herself or make something burst into flames. It was exhausting in the best way possible. And neither of them wanted to see that light disappear over a small set back. 

But they couldn't drag it on any further either, Akemi needed to get out in the world eventually, and after a talk about overprotection, they decided that was the day. There were taking Akemi to the station to talk to Lin. Maybe she’d be able to get something out of her that the women couldn’t. And not get incinerated in the process. 

_No, no, we're ready, she's ready._

Korra's hesitation must have reached the surface because Akemi quickly noticed the change, her own features succumbing to worry.

"What's wrong?" Akemi asked, her voice low and squeaky. Asami shot Korra an alarmed look from across the room. 

"Nothing… it's just… I thought I heard something…" Korra took her open hand to her ear theatrically and started pacing slowly around Akemi "I thought it may be… the Wind monster!" the shrieks of laughter begun before Korra started airbending, bouncing and twirling the girl in a loop of wind that kept her suspended a few feet from the ground, until landing in Korra's arms.

"Are we ready yet, Wind monster?" Asami asked, approaching them and quickly fixing Akemi's ruffled top knot.

"What do you say Akemi, are you ready to see Lin? That nice lady we talked about?" Korra had to admit 'nice' might have been a bit of a stretch. 

"And ice cream afterwards?" The girl asked with a wide smile.

"And ice cream afterwards, if you are good" Asami kissed the girl’s hairline and they all walked through the door.

As they approached the police station, Korra could feel the knot that had formed in her chest begin to rise to her throat, threatening to choke her with pure nervousness. And she didn't seem to be the only one: Akemi had entered the precinct on Asami's arms, her face hidden in her clothes, clutching the woman's arm for dear life. 

Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. Maybe they should go back. 

Good thing the sight that welcomed her as she stepped into the precinct made her change her mind, the knot disappearing.

"Dad!" Korra approached his father and threw his arms around him, surprised by the sudden visit "What are you doing here? Where's mom?" 

"Hi sweety, actually I was here to see yo-" he interrupted himself when he noticed the two figures approaching behind Korra.

"Hi Tonraq, nice to see you! it's been a while" Asami greeted, but Tonraq didn't quite hear her, his attention hoarded by the girl in Asami's arms.

"Is there anything I need to know?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. Korra gave a few steps back and stood next to Asami, a hand on her waist.

"Dad, this is Akemi" the girl's curiosity won over her fear, and begun shifting in Asami's arms, trying to get a better look at the man "Akemi, this is Tonraq, my father" Korra explained "Would you like to say hi?" The girl turned around to fully face the chieftain. 

"Hi" she said waving her hand shyly. Tonraq smiled, noticing the girl had Korra's gloves on.

"Hi there, Akemi" Tonraq responded "And hello to you too, Asami, sorry, I got a little distracted" 

"Understandably so" Asami laughed nervously. 

"So, a water tribe girl" Tonraq followed "How did you two…" he was looking at her daughter inquisitively. 

"She is actually a firebender" a door flew open, Lin coming through, cutting Korra short. Asami felt Akemi’s hands heat up against her clothing, the sudden noise startling her.

"Oh, there you all are, you are late!" if looks could kill, Lin would have been laying on the floor right then, Asami's eyes flaring bright green. Asami put the girl down and kneel to her height, holding her hands. 

"Now Akemi, remember what we talked about?" The girl nodded "She is Lin, she is our friend, she is gonna ask you the questions" Asami pointed to the chief "I'll be right here if you need anything"

"Korra too?" She asked looking up at the Avatar.

"Me too, tiny, promise" the words encouraged Akemi, who nodded decisively and put a brave face, walking towards Lin followed closely by Asami.

"I'd stay away from mentioning the _family_ " this one said to Lin in a whisper "Also, don't ask her about the scars" 

"What's with you two and telling me how to do my job?" Lin complained under her breath before disappearing with Akemi into the interrogation room. Asami was left staring at the closed door wishing she could be there with Akemi, but the conversation happening behind her brought her back to earth.

“What was that about?” Tonraq asked, still puzzled. 

“I’ll explain later” Korra dismissed him “What brings you to Republic City?”

“I got news about the attack on the Spirit Portal, and grew concerned” 

“You are about the only one” Korra scoffed “Considering a maniac made a bunch of spirits go berserk, the whole deal blew over pretty quickly” she rolled her eyes “Damn bureaucracy”

“So it’s true, then” Tonraq didn’t seem pleased about the confirmation. “He controls the spirits”

“He doesn’t control them, but he certainly has some kind of influence over them” Korra corrected. “But it doesn't seem to matter anymore, after the attack we manage to disband most of the triad, and we haven’t heard from the Leader since”

“So, this Leader...” 

“Big guy, black markings, non-bender” Korra finished.

“I knew this would come back to bite us” Tonraq whispered to himself.

“What do you mean?” Asami intervened, alarmed. 

“I think I know who your Leader is” Tonraq paused “His name is Nilak, from the southern water tribe”

_____________________________________________________________________

_“Nilak, I don’t like this!” Nuniq shouted at her brother ahead of her._

_“Nuniq, don’t be such a coward!” Nilak’s words were lost in the storm around them. He held on to his parca for dear life, eyes stuck to the ground not really seeing where he was going, snowflakes threatening to freeze his eyes over if he dared look up. But he was_ not _going back “It’s gonna be okay”_

_“Easy for you to say” At twelve Nuniq had not yet mastered waterbending, but was doing her best at keeping her brother out of harm's way, blocking and deflecting the sharp icicles and mounds of snow that kept appearing out of nowhere. She had lived around snow her entire life, but had never seen it behave like this, it was as if the storm had a life of its own, and was out to get them._

_“We are almost there!” Nilak reassured her. But were they really? Their sled had broken down a few miles ago and they had been walking towards the gray mist ahead ever since, hardly making any progress. She got lost in her thoughts and almost missed the icicle going straight towards her brother’s head._

_“Watch out!” She reflexively lifted her hands up and a wobbly wall of snow rose with them, blocking the missile by a hair’s breadth. There was no way that blow wasn’t on purpose. “I’m going back”! she stopped walking, but Nilak kept marching forwards, either because he didn’t hear her or because he didn’t care. Nuniq leaned towards the latter. “I SAID I AM GOING BACK!” She screamed and to make sure her brother would notice, made a pull motion with her hands, the snow shifting beneath his feet, making Nilak stumble. He stood up, finally turning around, and Nuniq knew she had made her brother mad. His moves were controlled as he approached her, even despite the snowstorm, as if actively restraining himself from punching her._

_“IT’S ALWAYS THE SAME WITH YOU!” he screamed even though he didn’t need to, only a few feet away from Nuniq. “YOU PROMISE YOU’D HELP AND TO THEN BACK DOWN AT THE LAST SECOND!”_

_“Last second?!” Nuniq said, outraged “I’ve been out here freezing my butt off for the last two weeks” she tried calming herself down, she still had trouble controlling her waterbending when under distress. “And for what? I don’t even get what has you obsessing over this place!”_

_“You wouldn’t understand” Nilak said “You cannot feel its pull, it’s like its calling me” he had lowered his voice and closed his eyes as if to focus on said call._

_“You are insane” Nuniq was stunned at his brother’s delusions “if anything, this place wants us dead! But you wouldn’t know, cause I’m the waterbender here, I’m the one making sure you don’t get impaled by a freaking flying icicle!” Nuniq knew where to hit her brother so it’d hurt._

_“I DON’T NEED YOUR STUPID BENDING” Nilak shoved his sister, making her lose her ground, landing on the snow. She crawled away from his brother unable to stand up with the wind pinning her down “I BET IS_ YOU _THE SPIRITS DON’T WANT AROUND” Nuniq quitted paying attention to his brother’s fit, and instead looked up over his head “ I SHOULD’VE LEFT YOU BEHIND” A black spirit over fifty feet tall appeared from behind the mist, now suddenly much closer to them, the storm seemingly invigorated by the presence “YOU ARE NOTHING BUT A BURDEN” Nuniq couldn’t speak, the terror paralyzing her vocal cords. Nilak’s rage was blinding him from the Spirit behind them, now so close that Nuniq could clearly see its features, like the ones from a buzzard wasp painted in sloppy strokes of red and white against the pure black of his body._

_“NILAK!” Nuniq shrieked as the Spirit raised his claw, ready to strike her brother. Nilak turned around, finally catching on to his sister’s terror, just in time to see the pillar of snow freezing over his head, Nuniq’s last attempt at protecting his brother. But she had read the Spirit’s intentions wrong. It wasn’t going after her brother; it was going after her._

_She realized a moment too late, the three-fingered claw striking her fully on the chest, sending her flying back. She opened her mouth in a silent cry that didn’t leave her throat, her breath caught on her lungs. The last thing she saw before blacking out was the horror painted in her brother’s face, and the mighty Spirit above, its features mimicking Nilak’s distraught expression._

_“NUNIQ!” the brother fought against the wind and ran to his sister, tears freezing before reaching his cheeks as he cradled his sister’s head. Only then he faced the Spirit for the first time. “NOO!” he howled, although it was less like a cry and more of an order. The Spirit stopped on its tracks and shrunk half its size, its features softening and changing color from red to light blue, its eyes like teardrops._

_Nuniq groaned, slowly coming back to her senses, and Nilak’s attention eased off the spirit. When she opened her eyes again, her brother hugged her, relieved “I’m sorry” he whimpered into her ear, and when he looked up again, the Spirit was gone._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a little different, cause sometimes a girl needs flashbacks to get her point across.  
> For real though, I thought it would be more interesting to see the events unfold in real time instead of learning about them through dialog.  
> I'd love to hear opinions about it, cause I have mixed feelings about flashbacks myself.  
> See you next week!


	15. Revelations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, just a heads up, there are mild mild spoilers from the comics Turf Wars. If you have a problem with that, just skip the third paragraph :)

“He was banished from the South Pole six years ago” Tonraq said, crestfallen “But we knew he was a fanatic way before that, even when the portal was blocked, he would try and commune with the wild spirits around it, his obsession only worsened once the portal was reopened”. 

“By me” Korra said softly, looking at her feet. Asami placed a hand on her back, reassuringly.

“Yes, but that wasn’t all” Tonraq followed “It was Tokuga who gave him the idea to fuse with the spirits” It was long ago, but neither Asami nor Korra had trouble remembering Tokuga. He was the then leader of the triple threat triad that in a scuffle around Republic City Spirit portal was attacked and maimed by a spirit. It would take a madman to try and replicate such thing.

"It almost killed Tokuga” Asami pointed out.

“If it wasn’t for his twin sister he would have been too. She brought him to the healers in appalling conditions, the entire left side of his chest raw, covered in what seem to be black tar.” Tonraq winced at the memory “It was her, Nuniq, who told us everything, she was with him when it happened. She swore his brother had powers over the spirits, and had tricked them into fusing with him, he wanted to _commune_ with them. That was the word she used” the chieftain clicked her tongue in frustration “We didn’t believe her, we thought she had spent enough time with her brother for the insanity to have rubbed off on her. But we couldn’t ignore that Nilak was meddling too much with the spirits to be allowed near the portal ever again. That’s why he was banished.”

“Can we talk to Nuniq? She may know what her brother is after” Asami asked. 

“I’m afraid not. When Nilak was banished, Nuniq went away with him. It was a pity, she was a great bender, and an even better healer. But they were one of _those_ kinds of twins, they could hardly be found one without the other” Tonraq lamented “We lost their trail at Whaletail Island about six months after they left the South Pole” 

“And six years after that, he appears in Republic City with a bunch of kids and raids the Spirit Portal” Korra laughed at the absurdity of the whole thing. “Time clearly didn’t do this guy any favors, he’s still insane” 

“Do you think he is really related to Akemi?” Asami said, turning around to face Korra. 

“I don’t know, maybe ‘cub’ was some sort of euphemism” Korra responded, her dad looking confused. 

“What does the girl have to do with Nilak?” 

“He said something to Korra at the por-” Asami was interrupted by a voice coming from the interrogation room. 

“Please back off, I’m about to firebend!” Akemi said from within, the women looking at each other alarmed. Korra didn’t wait for the door to open, she metalbent it out of the way, Lin and Akemi at the other side, in opposite ends of the room.

Korra had entered ready to deflect a whole other kind of situation, expecting Akemi to be crying about some memory they didn't know how to make better, dealing with another of those horrible fits that would let her drained and lightless. But let it to Lin to unlock a whole new facet of the kid. 

Cause Akemi wasn't crying, neither was she slumped powerless in a corner, far from it. She was standing straight, her head barely poking above the metal table in from of her, fists clenched tightly on her sides, her scars glowing a faint blue where the gloves didn’t cover them. She was, well, angry.

“What happened?” Asami asked, and Korra let go of the door that landed loudly on the ground like a crumpled can of noodles. Lin opened her mouth, but Akemi answered instead.

“She said Hakue isn’t real!" Asami closed her eyes in realization: she hadn’t given Lin a heads up about Hakue. Akemi run up to her, and hid behind Asami's leg, still staring daggers at Lin.

“I don’t even know what she is talking about!” the chief said disgruntled.

“Okay, let's all simmer down” Asami might have disagreed with that worried look of hers, but Korra found the whole thing rather amusing. Still, she got a hold of herself and gave Akemi a stern look. "Akemi, you can't yell at Lin, it's disrespectful" Asami looked down at the girl and nudge her gently on her back.

"I'm sorry" Akemi said, the blue tint of her scars coming down. 

"And Lin" The Avatar redirected her scolding glare towards the chief "Hakue exists, okay?" Lin tried to complain, but was met with a warning look from Korra.

"All settled?" Akemi nodded and Lin scoffed "Alright, then, Asami how about you take Akemi to get that ice cream?" Asami tried taking the girl out of the room, but Akemi remained firm on her spot, looking at Korra "Don't worry, I'll catch up to you, this will only take a second" and with that said, the promise for ice cream too hard to resist, Akemi gave up and followed Asami. 

“That kid is a handful” Lin huffed once they were left alone.

"You could have been a little more delicate" 

"How was I supposed to know it was a touchy subject?" she said, outraged "And look what you did to my door!" She pointed to the sad clump of metal.

"Sorry" Korra shrugged. 

"Is everything okay?" Tonraq stepped into the doorless room.

"Yes, everything is okay, but I think I should go with them” Korra attempted to go after Asami but was stopped by Lin, a hand to her shoulder.

"Wait, this wasn’t all for nothing" Korra turned back around “She actually said something”

"She did?" Korra tilted her head. 

"I think I can locate the sandbender tribe the kid is talking about"

"You can?" Korra was surprised and a little hurt that Lin managed to get something they couldn't out of Akemi. "Wait, are you saying she is telling the truth about living in the desert?"

"If she isn't, she’s got a very accurate imagination" Lin responded “She said something about men riding gigantic bugs with funny hats" 

“Beetle headed merchants” Tonraq said. “You may have a better chance at talking to them than to any sandbender tribe, most aren’t very friendly with strangers”

“Exactly what I thought” Lin nodded “Also, and this maybe a long shot, but I made a little digging and found out about an accident on the Si Wong Desert a few months back. Two men were captured in Fort Bosco, but were ultimately released for lack of proof” So Lin hadn't completely dismissed Korra when she told her about the desert. 

“Did any of the witnesses said something about a big guy with black markings?” the Avatar asked, eager for more information, but Lin shook her head.

“There were no witnesses, besides the two men, no one survived” Korra's heart hitched inside her chest. Was Akemi's family among the dead? “The wreckage left behind was big enough that a sand shark could have done it, so we had to let the men go”

“But you have to still have them in file” Tonraq added “You can track ‘em and question them again”

“I don’t believe they had anything to do with it” Lin clicked her tongue “They seemed a little out of whack if you ask me”

“Let me guess, they said something about a big evil spirit” Lin nodded. "Dad, did you tell Lin about Nilak?" 

"Yes, he did, it sounds like our guy" Lin responded “It seems to add up”

"Are you ready to take him seriously now?" Korra had a bad feeling brewing in her gut.

"I never underestimated him. But yes, we may have sufficient reason for the authorities to give him priority now" she admitted. "I think I can sway them into letting me send some of my men to the desert, ask around"

"And I should go back to the south" Tonraq added.

"So soon?" Korra asked, a little disappointed.

"With this guy on the loose, I don't like the idea of leaving the portal unattended for too long, we don't know how many followers he has or where they are" 

"I guess you are right" she mumbled "You should tell Esna and Desna to amp up their security around the Northern Spirit portal as well" 

"I'll see what I can do about that"

"It'd be best if you stay in Republic City, Korra, chances are he will attack again once he regroups" Lin pointed out.

"I can't say I'm too disappointed about skipping that diplomatic visit to the Earth Kingdom" Korra hugged his father goodbye "We'll go visit you and mom once this is over" 

"Take care of that little girl of yours" Tonraq said to his daughter.

"She is not ours" Korra begun, leaning away from the embrace.

"I know, I know. But come visit when she is, okay? Your mother will be thrilled”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kind of an expositional chapter, be back with domestic life next week. Don't die of boredom just yet.


	16. Accidents Happen

"What's that?" Akemi pointed at a parked car with her ice cream cone, her other hand busy holding Asami's.

"A Roadster Satomobile" the woman answered. Akemi had been asking question pretty much since they stepped out of the police station, but Asami was enjoying it, it had become a sort of game for them.

"Did you make that one at your job too?" Akemi followed. The girl had become very familiar with the inside of Asami's office at Future Industries lately. Even if she tried working home and usually took turns with Korra, most of the time Asami preferred taking Akemi with her, either because sometimes the Avatar duties were too much for a child to keep up with or just because Asami liked having the girl safe with her. And Akemi seem to have taken a liking to it as well.

"In a way, yes, I did" she answered "Now it's my turn, how many Nations are there?" Akemi jumped up, the scoop of ice cream dangerously sliding off the cone.

"Four! Fire, Air, Water and Earth" she said excited, but quickly resuming her own questioning "Who is she?" She pointed to the statue rising in the distance above the Police Headquarters entrance.

"That's Toph Beifong, the first metalbender" Asami explained "Do you remember in which nation Republic City used to be?" Akemi licked what was left of the melting ice cream and gave it a thought.

"Earth Kingdom?" Asami nodded and the girl smiled, proceeding to ask her question "Why did the lady say Hakue doesn't exist?" Asami flinched. Hakue had been an uninvited guest in their house for a couple weeks now and was pretty much the only thing Akemi ever mentioned about her past life. They had asked Lin if any of the captured triad members were named that way, and when the answer came back negative, they went as far as having her check for anyone that went by Hakue in the Fire Nation, but nothing had come up, only a couple men in no feasible way related to Akemi. So Korra and Asami had given up, figuring it was just an imaginary friend or maybe an old stuffed animal.

"Because she doesn't know, sweetie" Asami stopped walking and kneeled in front of Akemi, taking a handkerchief out of her pocket "And you shouldn't lash out at someone for not knowing better, don't you think?" she said while cleaning the ice cream off the girl's hands and mouth with the piece of cloth.

"I won't do it again" Akemi promised, and looked at Asami with those big blue eyes of hers that made it impossible for the woman to keep a straight face for too long.

"Alright, I skip my turn, ask away" Asami said with a chuckle, quickly running her fingers through the girls locks before standing up and resuming their game.

"Is Tonraq your father too?" Asami almost lost her footing.

"Oh no, he is not my father, he is Korra's" she laughed.

"But you said you and Korra are family"

"We are, but we are not the kind of family you are born into, we are the kind of family you choose" Asami saw she was not getting through Akemi, her eyes clouding with confusion. "When Korra and I first met we were just friends, but we fell in love and decided to be a family together, that's why we got married" 

"Like moms and dads?" 

"Exactly like moms and dads"

"So, you love Korra?" the girl corroborated.

"Very much so, and I know she loves me too" Akemi fell silent for a moment, staring at her shoes while they walked, thinking. 

"Do you love me?" She finally asked, looking up at Asami, waiting for the answer.

_Spirits kid, you and your questions._

"I do, Akemi, in a different way, but I love you with all my heart, Korra and I both do" The words were hard to say out loud, it felt like admitting it would break a spell and grant the universe permission to rip Akemi out of their lives. 

"I love you in a different way too" the girl said in a whisper. Asami looked down and smiled at her, tightly squeezing the little hand. She was determined to enjoy the little things for as long as she could, because she didn't know for how long she would get to. Because as much as she wanted to find Akemi's family safe and sound, she also could no longer imagine her life without the girl in it. The conflicting feelings colliding inside her, causing that dull pain in the pit of her stomach. "It's your turn" Akemi brought her back to reality.

"Okay, how about…" she thought for a second "Who is Hakue?" she may as well try again.

"I told you already, he is my friend" Akemi seemed bothered by the question. To be fair, Korra and herself had asked her way too many times about Hakue, the answer always coming back the same.

"But what kind of friend? Is he like me or Korra? Like Naga?" She kept pushing.

"It's not your turn yet" Akemi said in what felt like an excuse to avoid answering the question. Asami closed her eyes in frustration. 

"Alright" 

"What are these?" Akemi let go of Asami's hand and kneeled close to the ground where vines as thick as arms sprawled. Asami looked up, blocking the sun with her hand. Distracted playing their game, they'd wandered further away from the police station than she had intended to, almost reaching the Spirit Portal.

"Those are spirit vines" she replied.

"There are a lot of them" Akemi pointed out, reaching out to grab one of the loose vessels.

"That's because we are near a portal, can you see it? Up high?" Akemi looked were Asami was pointing, but couldn't see anything, the earth barrier blocking the view. Instead, she turned her head around when a bright splotch of light in the corner of her eye caught her attention. 

"Look!" she said, taking off after the illusion.

"Akemi, wait" the woman went after the child, worried about the officers she knew would be waiting by the portal. But climbing up the lump of vines, her foot got caught, and by the time she looked up again, Akemi was already out of her sight. 

Soon enough she managed to untangle herself when Akemi suddenly cried out ahead of her, emboldening the kick that set Asami free. The woman quickly caught up to the girl, just in time to find her in a weak fighting stance against a bright pink spirit, her back turned to her. 

The little thing was tiny, even smaller than Akemi, and seemed to be more curious than threatened by the girl, as it kept going towards her despite the hostile stance.

And it wasn't only the pink spirit who took an interest to the child either: to Akemi's horror a bunch of other spirits started to materialize near them in a matter of seconds, as if the girl was some kind of beacon they were drawn to. 

Asami slowly approached Akemi from behind, not wanting to startle her, and gently placed a hand over the tense shoulder in an attempt to calm her down.

"They are just spirits, they are not gonna hurt you" she said. Akemi immediately turned around, her eyes widening with terror when she realized Asami had followed her. 

And to Asami's surprise the girl didn't jump into her arms looking for refuge, instead she stood protectively in front of her, the scarred hands setting aflame. 

Asami didn't quite know what was happening, much less what to do about it, she could just stand there speechless, backing off when Akemi did, as this one tried putting more distance between her and the spirits.

But these weren't catching on. They kept going towards Akemi and she was having none of it. It was a matter of seconds before one of the spirits came too close to them, inciting the blue flame exiting Akemi's fist in retaliation. The hit went straight through the pink spirit harmlessly, the entity barely even noticing the disturbance. 

Asami saw the effect this impervious reaction had on the girl, whose fighting stance instantly became more defensive, her foot stepping onto Asami's as she tried backing off faster than the woman was moving. 

And it got worse once more spirits started showing up: soon half a dozen entities surrounded them, unbothered by the flames shooting over their heads, Akemi's aiming worsening as her fear escalated. 

"Akemi stop, they are not gonna hurt you" Asami finally managed to spit out, but the girl seemed to be in a different mind-set, her number one priority taking Asami out of there, now that fighting was off the table. 

So she desperately grabbed her arm, pulling the engineer away from the spirits with all her strength. Asami gave in and let herself be dragged as the ignited little hand closed firmly around her wrist, burning the flesh beneath.

Asami held back any complaint until the spirits were out of sight, but even then, Akemi didn't let go and kept running, consumed by a panicked frenzy. And with the pain in her wrist getting worse by the second, Asami finally caved.

"Akemi, please, let me go" she winced and the girl looked back at her. For the first time she noticed her lit hand engulfing Asami's in blue fire. 

She immediately let go, looking at her own hands in horror and then back up at the woman cupping her injured wrist. She stepped back, trying to get away from what she had done.

In that moment, Korra appeared behind her.

"Hey-" she greeted happily, her mood suddenly changing as she was confronted by the scene. She ran past Akemi to reach her wife "What happened? Are you ok?" She said, staring at the reddened flesh.

"I'm okay, go with her" Asami begged, looking up at Akemi. Her blue eyes welled up with tears as she stared at them from a few feet away, her arms stretched away from her body, as if they were separate entities out of her control. 

"Akemi, come here, it's ok" the Avatar said, but the girl kept backing away. Korra and Asami shared a quick glance before Korra slowly started approaching her. "We're not mad, here look, Asami is okay" Korra said, trying to sound reassuring.

The girl tried giving another step back away from Korra but her foot got caught and she stumbled back, landing on the vines. Rather than standing up, she just stayed there on the ground, her face hidden between her knees, arms around her legs, trying to disappear.

"It's alright, tiny" Korra said, scooping her up. The girl didn't move a muscle, her face still hidden. "Accidents happen"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late upload, been without power all day yesterday... yet again *sigh*  
> So, for the ones who liked Asami and Akemi togueter, I hope you enjoyed this chapter right up until I decided to ruin it for plot sake.  
> You are very welcome.  
> For real tho, this chapter ended up being more jammed pack with foreshadowing that I expected, so watch up for that I guess?


	17. Training

“I'm sorry" Akemi clung to Asami, hiding her face in the crook of her neck. She had refused to look at them since arriving home but kept apologizing over and over.

“It's okay, we are not mad, we know you didn't mean to" Asami's hand ran up and down the girl's back while Korra worked on the other, an iridescent blob of water wrapping around her wrist. “See? Korra can heal me” The woman said, in an attempt to draw Akemi's attention somewhere else, but her face remained hidden.

“Don't worry, tiny, we'll get Asami up and running in no time” Korra looked at Akemi's turned head, and then up at her wife, who wore the same contrived look as her. 

“I'm sorry” was Akemi’s only reply. Reassurance was clearly getting them nowhere.

“You know, being scared is perfectly normal” Korra said instead, nonchalantly.

“Definitely, you should see me every time Korra gets behind the wheel, it's terrifying” Asami played along. Korra looked at her with fake indignation, splashing some water in her direction. Akemi turned her head slightly, watching the exchange form the corner of her eye, a subtle smile creeping across her face. 

"And I used to hate scary movers, but now I quite like them, since Asami made me watch so many of them" 

"That's right, sometimes it just about facing your fears with someone by your side" 

"Maybe we can go all together to the Spirit Portal one of this days, so you can see that spirits are not all that bad" Korra seemed to have struck a chord with Akemi, cause she immediately turned her head around to face her fully, determination written in her eyes.

"No" she said, before turning her head back around.

"Care to elaborate?" Korra said, a little bemused.

"If you are scared, we can take it slow, and we promise to be by your wide the whole time, right Korra? the woman nodded enthusiastically.

"I am not scared" Akemi declared, her voice muffled by Asami's jacket "They were going to hurt you" 

"Is that why you attacked the spirits? Were you trying to protect me?" Akemi nodded, and let go of Asami’s neck to look at her in the eye.

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that, Asami is an expert butt kicker. Spirit or otherwise" said Korra, but Akemi didn't seem quite as convinced.

"But spirits are bad, they hurt people" It dawn on Korra that Akemis’s fears were likely not unfounded. 

"Did they hurt  _ you _ ?" Korra let go of the healing water and lightly stroked the back of the girl's hand with her thumb. Akemi looked at her own scars and nodded slowly. 

"Did they hurt anybody else?" Asami noticed the girl's eyes watering as she nodded again.

"You know, spirits can't be bad" Korra said, changing the subject "It's people that make them that way… bad people" Akemi looked at her with a trace of understanding in her eyes. "You know how when you are angry or sad, you can't quite control your firebending? Well, something similar happens with spirits. Sometimes people make them angry on purpose so they will get mad and hurt people for them. Like a weapon" 

"Bad people use spirits?" She asked, trying to grasp the concept.

"Exactly. But that doesn’t make it the spirits' fault" Asami chimed in.

"It  _ is  _ their fault. They shouldn't let that happen" she said, her forehead creasing. 

"They don't know any better, sweetie" Asami tried persuading her, but it didn't work.

"They should, they shouldn't hurt people, never ever" Korra and Asami looked at each other, suddenly realizing they were no longer talking about spirits.

"I don't know about spirits, but you can learn to control your firebending" Korra said hesitantly. 

"How?" Akemi opened her eyes wide, as if the idea had never occurred to her.

"I bet Korra can teach you how" Asami tucked a loose strand of hair behind the girl's ear.

"Sure, I can teach you to defend yourself. Asami and I weren't much older than you when we first started learning" the girl jumped from Asami's legs, suddenly unable to contain her excitement and grabbed Korra by the hand.

"Can we start now?" She said enthusiastically, her voice raising in volume as she pulled insistently on the Avatar’s hand. 

"I don't know, can we, Sami?" Korra said, smiling, having already gotten up to her feet, giving in to the tugging. Asami looked up at the clock on the wall behind them.

"You can go, but you got an hour before nap time, young lady" the engineer told Akemi seriously "And I expect no resistance then, understood?" 

"Yes, yes, yes" Akemi jumped up and down. 

"Let's see if she is that excited after stance training" Korra said to her wife with a smile.

"Go easy on her" Asami kissed her on the cheek "And don't get her  _ too _ riled up, or we may never sleep again"

"Copied that" Korra was slowly being pulled towards the door "Aren't you coming?"

"I'll catch up to you in a bit. I'm gonna get a water bucket ready… just in case" 

"Good thinking" Korra took a finger to her temple. 

"Come oooon" Akemi insisted, already at the door.

"I'm coming, I'm coming" As soon as Korra opened the door to the yard, a mountain of drool and fur welcomed them at the other side. Akemi stumbled back and landed on the grass, Naga on top of her as she licked her face, laughter pouring from the girl.

"Easy Naga, be careful" Korra patted her on the side and the polar bear dog recoiled slowly, Akemi holding onto her fur helping herself up.

"Please Naga, back off, I'm about to firebend" the sentence came with its matching pose, chest forwards and hands to the side. Naga, clearly intimidated, gave her another lick on the side of her face, further messing up the intricate updo Asami so carefully had concocted that morning. 

"Actually, we are not going to firebend today" said Korra, and couldn't help to chuckle at the blatantly disappointed look from Akemi "Firebending is all about control, you will have to learn restrain before actually producing flame. And don't be fooled, sometimes it's just as hard" Korra couldn't quite tell if what she was saying was going over Akemi's head or not. After all it was her first time teaching a kid.

"First, we greet each other" Akemi positioned herself in front of Korra and bowed deeply, a closed fist over her open hand. Korra returned the favor. "It's a sign of respect, it means we'll take care of each other while we train" Akemi nodded in understanding.

"Try this" Korra positioned both of her fists at each side of her hips, elbows pointing backward. Akemi followed suit. "Now, open your legs elbows wide, bend your knees, toes pointing forward, straight back… tuck your butt in" As best as she could Akemi followed Korra’s instructions into a clumsy horse stance. "This position is supposed to ground you, keep your body steady and solid, so… Naga?" Korra called upon the polar bear dog laying down next to Akemi. Naga nuzzled the girl on the ribs, making her laugh and lose her position. She quickly realised what had happened and straightened herself up again, and this time she was the one asking Naga to check her form. 

"Naga, please" and the polar bear dog tapped her with her snout on the back, and this time, Akemi remained steady. 

"Well done" Korra praised. "Now, I gather you already know how to make a fire fist" Akemi nodded "Well, we are doing  _ those _ without the fire part" Akemi nodded seriously, frowning at the ground as she got ready to launch the fist nestled on her hip. Korra saw what was going to happen beforehand, quickly signaling Naga to step behind Akemi and ducking as the flames cursed the air above her head. 

Akemi was propelled back by the sheer force of the flame exiting her fist in a continuous stream of angry fire, out of her control. Naga was prepared behind her, and as soon as she saw the girl falling, she rested her head flat against Akemi's back to steady her back up, and without wasting a breath, Korra redirected the flame to a small pocket of air between her hands, where it died not a second after. 

Akemi looked at Korra abashed, not quite sure what had just happened and whether or not it elicited a scolding. Korra suppressed a smile.

“Your stance was good enough to draw a more powerful fire fist, but not to completely control it yet. You’ll get there, try again" she encouraged, but Akemi seemed hesitant. Korra pursed her lips, trying to think. "Okay, let's try this instead. Get on horse stance… now, close your eyes" Korra guided her, but noticed how tense Akemi was, her shoulder blades smushed together and her eyes moving fast behind her eyelids, uncomfortable with the blindness. Korra placed a hand flat on Akemi's back, trying to bring her ease, but she just flinched at the contact instead.

_ What have they done to you?  _

"Relax, you need to be in control of yourself in order to control fire" the words fell on deaf ears. But to be fair, when telling a nervous person to calm down had ever worked? "You don't have anything to be worried about, Naga has your back, and you are with me. You are safe" she felt the muscles on her back begin to untangle "Now, breath in and hold the air deep in your belly before letting it go. When I tell you, you will open your eyes, and throw a punch" 

Korra waited a bit, watching Akemi's demeanor relax with every breath, her features softening, more serene.

"Now!" Akemi opened her eyes, an assertive look crossing her face as she punched the air, smoke coming from her fist, but no fire. Korra smiled. "Again" the fist in front of her returned to her hip and the other launched forward at the command. "Good job, keep going" Korra said with enthusiasm. Somewhere along the way, Akemi started enjoying the process, smiling with glee at every fire-less punch. She only stopped when Asami stepped into the garden.

"Asami, look what I can do!" Akemi shouted and proceeded to demonstrate.

"Impressive" this one said, looking at the fuming punches as she walked towards Korra "I guess we won't be needing this" she said to her putting the water bucket down before wrapping an arm around Korra's waist.

"What can I tell you, our daughter is a natural" Korra responded, her words betraying her. Their smiles faded out, awkwardly "Akemi, I think that's enough for today" the girl stopped, letting herself fall theatrically on top of Naga.

Asami closed the distance between them, and looked down at the sweaty child. "Are you ready for your nap?" the girl nodded and stretched her hands out for Asami to pick her up, too tired to walk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Didn't have as much time to proof read this one, so sorry if I let some mistake slip.  
> Hope you enjoyed it nonetheless!  
> See you next week


	18. The Call

Training turned out to be the best medicine for Akemi. It was great watching her slowly take control of her own powers, even if it was to the detriment of the landscape which progressively began looking more… burnt. A nice plus was that by the end of the day the girl was too tired to fight sleep and even her nightmares were starting to go away, and with them, Akemi’s late-night trips into Korra and Asami’s bed. Although, now that they were gone, the women kinda missed the little body sleeping between them.

After a few weeks of steady training, Asami suggested adding meditation to the mix and even if it got off to a rocky start, with Akemi either falling asleep or quickly growing bored by it, they were beginning to get the hang of it. Specially since they figured out it was easier for Akemi to keep calm if she meditated seated on Korra or Asami’s legs. 

They weren't all the way to loving spirits yet, but they rested assured on knowing they were set on the right path.

Not only Akemi began to thrive in her new stable environment, but Korra and Asami did as well. Time let them settle into their new routine almost seamlessly, and the three of them quickly became a well-oiled machine. Albeit the sporadic incident where Akemi set something on fire during one of her training sessions. 

It became easier to let some of the uncomfortable details slide past them. Like the possibility of Akemi having a family out there still, or even worse, said family being the crazy cult Leader. But without any news on the matter, they inevitably got caught up in everyday life, and chose to chase away any ill thoughts about it.

Reality had its own ways of keeping them on check, though. This time it came in the form of a phone call. 

Asami was doing some paperwork in the kitchen while Akemi took a nap upstairs when the phone rang. It was a rare occurrence in their house as most people didn't have a landline, let alone their phone number. Asami had gotten it installed a few years back mainly so she could take calls from work and Korra could be reached by the airbenders more easily. But given she had spoken with her secretary this morning and Korra was already at Air Temple Island, the ringing came as the inevitable bearer of bad news.

Asami shot up from her chair, gathering something must have happen to Korra, but the voice on the other end was unknown to her.

"Hello?"

"Good afternoon Mrs. I'm agent Lao-Tzu reaching you from Republic City police station. Is Mrs. Sato speaking?" Asami's blood went cold.

"This is she, what is this about?" She tried hiding the alarm in her voice.

"We have come up with new information regarding a case involving the child in your care" Asami wanted to say something, but any and all words got caught in her throat "Social services will be contacting you soon but I'd like to schedule an appointment at your earliest convenience"

"An appointment for what, what new information?" She didn't sound as loquacious as she wanted to, the questions pouring out of her unintelligibly.

"I'm afraid I can't disclose anything more over the phone, that's why we urge you to come to the station as soon as possible" Asami looked around for a piece of paper and a pen, but only found the latter, writing the agent's name on her palm.

"Do I need to take Ake- I mean the child in my care to the station with me? Does my spouse need to be present as well?" She was trying to gauge the seriousness of the situation.

"Social Services will be contacting you regarding that matter. And it'd be best if Avatar Korra was present as well, yes" There she had her answer. She felt her heart pounding on her chest, cold sweat making the pen in her hand slippery. 

"What do you mean? Will they take her away? Is something wrong?" She heard the tremble of her own voice echoing back at her from the other line.

"Social Services will be cont-" the engineer didn't get to hear the end of the sentence.

"Asami?" She turned around to see Akemi standing a few feet away from her, the whiny tone of her voice telling Asami she had been listening. The girl ran up to her, holding on to Asami’s leg as if she knew what was happening. 

"We'll be there in an hour" she muttered quickly.

"Mrs. Sato wait, I'd have to check-" she heard before hanging up the phone. She looked down at Akemi who stared back at her as terrified as that first day in the alleyway. 

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing sweetie. What do you say we pay Korra a visit?" She made her best impression of a smile.

After a rushed phone call to Air Temple Island with a confused Tenzin, Asami buckled Akemi to the back of her car and drove all the way to the mainland piers, downtown, where luckily Korra would be waiting for them.

The Avatar stood at the docks, fidgeting with her glider open and close, when she saw Asami's car approaching. The first sign that something was wrong was Asami's sloppy parking. She never parked crooked, and yet it was her who leaped out of the car without bothering to turn off the engine, looking at the verge of tears. If Korra was nervous before, that was the straw that broke the arctic camel's back.

"What's wrong?" She said closing the distance between them.

"I got a call, they told me to come to the police station" Asami said under her breath. 

"That much I gathered from Tenzin. What for?"

"Something new came up in Akemi's case, the agent didn't say much"

"Do you think they'll take her away?" She tried keeping her voice down in case Akemi could hear, but it came out less as a whisper and more like a shriek.

"I don't know" Asami lamented.

"Over my dead body" Korra clenched her fists.

"Korra, we knew this could happen" Asami reached for her hands, and laced their finger together, trying to appease her. She’d had the drive there to process that possibility, unlike Korra.

"But she is doing so well with us, everything seemed settled" this one stammered, her voice filled with grief.

"I know" Asami wrapped her arms around Korra "But no matter what, we need to stick with Akemi. If this is hard for us, it's even more so for a child. Either way, today she loses something, and she doesn’t need us making it harder" the words were spoken softly in Korra's ear, but they weighed on her. 

She looked over Asami's shoulder at the girl peeking through the car's open window. Korra's feeling didn't matter right now. She faked a smile and waved at her direction.

"You are right" she leaned away from the embrace "Let's just get this over with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love me some good ol' cliffhanger.   
> Kinda short but I'll make up for it in the upcoming week.   
> Next chapter it's gonna be a good one to hold you off during quarantine, if your country is going through that anyways.   
> Hope you liked the chapter and please take care of yourselves <3


	19. Ghan

It's fair to say that the three of them entered the police station with their hearts on their throats. Even clueless Akemi could feel something was wrong and remained awfully quiet. 

She sat on Korra's lap in the waiting room while Asami talked to the agent at the desk. Korra pulled every trick up her sleeve to try and keep Akemi distracted in the meantime, spinning a pellet with airbending for the girl to catch. But as an officer stepped into the room along with a lady that looked quite uptight in her brown pencil skirt, Korra knew all sense of calm was about to be thrown out the window.

She let go of the pellet as she saw her approaching. It spun out of her hand, clattering on the ground in rhythm with the woman's heels against the floor.

"Hi there, Akemi, right?" The woman said in a sweet-sounding voice, as she knelt in front of the girl. Akemi already wanted nothing to do with her and clung tighter to Korra, only glaring at the stranger from the corner of her eye. 

Asami approached and took a seat beside them.

"Sweetie, this is Jin-Li, she is here to help you" Akemi didn't seem to change her mind about the woman "You are going to stay with her for a little bit while we talk to the officer" Asami pointed to Lao-Tzu, the agent she had talked to earlier on the phone.

Akemi caught the part about them leaving her alone with a stranger and all alarms went off. She looked up at Asami with terror in her eyes and shook her head side to side adamantly. Korra's shirt creased between her little fists as she tightened her grip.

"I have puzzles and games we can play with in the other room" Jin-Lin said, not really helping the situation. 

"It's okay, tiny, later we can-" Korra was about to promise her a ride in her glider that would definitely freak Asami out, or their nightly stroll with Naga, or if everything else failed, the umpteenth ice-cream. But it suddenly dawned on her that her promises might be in vain. After all, she didn’t know if there was a later to talk about. She cleared her throat instead. "We'll be back before you know it" 

"Please don't leave me" Akemi muttered, and Korra's heart shattered inside her, hit with the blunt force of reality. She looked away, blinking fast, trying to will her tears out of existence. She let Asami take that one.

"We are not leaving" the engineer said, squeezing the Avatar's hand picking up on her distress "We'll be right there in the other room" The way Akemi held her gaze told Asami the girl wasn't talking about them leaving the precinct. 

Lao-Tzu waited impatiently behind them, sighing loudly and tapping his foot on the floor.

"Okay, enough, let's get moving" he said, prompting Jin-Li.

"It's gonna be okay, come here" this one said, before grabbing Akemi, forcing her down from Korra's lap and away from them. Said action was promptly reciprocated with a high-pitched scream. 

"Hey, lady" Korra shot up from her seat ready to take her head off, but Asami grabbed her by the arm. The girl squirmed and whined as the woman forcefully led her by the shoulders to the room next door. But no fire, Korra noticed proudly.

Regaining composure, Korra earthbent the lost pellet into her hand just as Akemi was stepping into the room. 

"Hey, Tiny" Akemi turned around despite the strange woman's firm grasp on her shoulders. Korra tossed the pebble at her, that aided with a little airbending, landed right into Akemi's cupped hands. "Hold that for me, would you?" Akemi nodded, closing her hands protectively around the pebble as she disappeared into the room.

Korra and Asami then approached Lao-Tzu. 

"Thank you for not making things any harder" he told them, his voice coated with a thick layer of disdain. If Korra hadn't given Akemi the pellet she would've pecked him in the forehead with it. 

"Was that really necessary?" Asami snapped at him, her temper free to roam loose now that Akemi was out of earshot. "If you are going to get Social Services involved, you better find one who actually knows how to deal with kids. Either that or you give us enough time to deal with it ourselves, in a sensible manner. You don't get to..." Korra thought about calming Asami down for the briefest of seconds, but concluded that it was more satisfying seeing her wife have a go at the man.

"Asami, leave my officer alone, please" a door opened behind Lao-Tzu, Lin coming through it. The flustered officer immediately straightened up "Come on you two, you'll want to see this"

The two women followed Lin through a long corridor, Lao-Tzu following them closely. But before he could make it into the room, Lin intercepted him.

"Not you, you lead the interview" the officer stood in its place looking rattled "What are you waiting for? Go" she shushed him, and closed the door behind him. 

"I don't like your second in command" Korra grumbled.

"It's not  _ my _ fault Mako left the force" Lin protested.

Korra and Asami looked around. The room they stepped into was dark and narrow, lit only by a lone light that flickered above them, threatening to give out at any moment. The center of attention was the one-way mirror that covered half the wall to their left. Behind that wall was the interrogation room, where a scrawny man sat at a table. 

He wasn't Nilak, Korra noted with a hint of disappointment, neither was he wearing cuffs. He didn't look like a perp at all for that matter, judging by his empty almost bored demeanor. Something about him gave Korra the impression he carried a weight so great, he had simply ceased caring.

"We found him by pure chance in Misty Palms Oasis" Lin pointed at the man with her chin "My men talked to various groups of merchants without luck for weeks on end. It wasn't 'till they stumbled upon a bar from around there, out of duty and half-drunk that this poor bastard appeared. He tended the bar, and overheard them talking about the lost tribe. He happened to lose his a few months back" 

"And you are sure he's from the tribe Akemi's been talking about?" Asami asked.

"Positive" Lin responded "He gave an accurate description of the girl, unprompted, along with other details about the rest of the members of his tribe. Specially this woman, Jaya. Did you know about her?" Both women shook their heads. "You will soon" she knocked on the one-way mirror twice, indicating Lao-Tzu at the other end to begin.

"Tell us your full name, please" this one said.

"I'm Ghan, I'm a sandbender from the Si Wong desert. Or used to be, at least" It wasn't hard to believe, the man was visibly tanned, his skin a darker shade around the eyes where the traditional sandbender wrappings wouldn't cover him. He had brown stormy eyes that looked around compulsively, more creases around them than his age called for.

"How about your origins?" Lao-Tzu followed.

"Lived in the desert all my life. We stem from the Hami tribe, but aren't- sorry, weren't as numerous. If I am honest, I preferred it that way, less power struggles" he half-smiled "My father, grandfather all the way to my great great grandfather were sandbenders. The tradition now ends with me" he said regretful, you could hear the pain in his voice, despite his impervious look.

"Can you tell us about the incident dating around six months ago?" Ghan draw a big breath before he began speaking. 

* * *

_ Ghan knelt close to the ground, digging with his nails looking for that pesky peg burrowed somewhere deep in the sand. It held in place the last of their sailer's guy-lines, meant to keep it secure to the ground, safe from smugglers and sand storms.  _

_ Had you asked him a day before, he would have told you they were useless and all part of a tradition meant to entertain old men's paranoia, always so convinced something or someone was out to get them. After all, the desert was huge and they rarely encountered someone they didn't mean to find, and most storm would burrow the sailer in mountains of sand rather than make it fly into the air. Hence why he thought the guy-lines and pegs were a waste of time. Their sailer wasn't going anywhere.  _

_ But he may have been due for a change of mind, watching how the wind was picking up around him, making the nose of their ship rise from the sand. _

_ "Ghan, help Jaya onto the sailer" his father yelled at him over the roaring wind. He looked behind him at the woman hunched over, shielding the bundle between her arms from the wind.  _

_ Ghan finally lost his patience and yanked the peg by its guy-line, hitting himself on the forehead as it came loose. He rubbed the sore bruise through his wrappings while coiling the guy-line with his other hand, slowly making his way towards the woman, fighting the wind.  _

_ "Let me help you" he placed a gentle hand on Jaya's back. _

_ "Help Akemi first" Jaya said, pointing to the three-year-old fighting with teeth and nails not to lose her footing on the shifting sand. _

_ "Come here, tiger-monkey" he tried getting ahold of the girl, but she wouldn't let him, squirming away from his grasp. She alone made it onto the ship, only accepting a gentle push once she was halfway there. "I don't bite; you know" Ghan told Akemi. The girl stuck her tongue out mockingly, earning herself a mouthful of sand. _

_ Ghan laughed at her for a while longer than it was appropriate for a grown man to be laughing at a child, before hopping into the sailer besides her, and sticking a hand out for Jaya. _

_ "Hand him to me, It'll be easier to climb up" he said, referring to the bundle the woman was cradling. _

_ "It's fine, I can do it" Jaya refused. Ghan wasn't surprised, he had hardly seen the boy's face since he had been born. Jaya carried him everywhere all the time, reluctant to give him up to anyone at any point, not even Ghan. Not that he blamed her, of course, it couldn't be easy to lose a husband so close to giving birth, and Ghan could only imagine how hard it would be to hand out the last piece left of him, even for a second. _

_ "All set?" His father howled once they were all on the ship, Ghan taking his position at his side. He didn't wait for any kind of confirmation before starting to sandbend them out of there, away from the upcoming storm. "Do you see them?" His father yelled at him, and Ghan adjusted his wrappings, trying to block the sand from clouding his view.  _

_ "Nothing" all of the other sailers had left before them, as it usually happened as of late. After all, with a postpartum woman, a baby and a small child, it was natural for things to go a bit slower than usual. They knew that would happen when they took Jaya and Akemi in, but in the end in didn't matter. His father was too honorable to turn away a fleeing pregnant woman. _

_ Ghan couldn't care less, it made it a fun race to try and catch up with the others, and as far as he was concerned, Jaya's presence alone was worth it.  _

_ "Wait, I see something" he speeded ahead trying to get closer to the six shadows in the distance. What he didn't see was how the sky turned a full shade darker in a matter of seconds. _

_ "Son, slow down" his father warned him, standing motionless across from him. _

_ "Why, we are almost the-" it didn't take him long to understand why. The sky had darkened not due to the storm, but because of the mythical beast that rose forty feet above ground "Is that a sand shark?" Of course it wasn't, and he knew it. Sand sharks weren't purple with tentacles. _

_ Ever since the portals were opened, it was rumored that evil spirits started inhabiting the Si Wong Desert, but Ghan wasn't superstitious and had never had a single reason to believe such nonsense. Until now. _

_ The beast screeched and burrowed itself on the sand, the world around them suddenly falling silent. He could no longer hear the wind, the whirling sand nor the crackling of sails, only desperate mutters and orders to turn around. _

_ Orders that never came to fruition. As soon as the beast emerged from the depths, it sent every sailer ahead of Ghan's up in the air, now turned to mere nails and planks, completely shattered. _

_ "NO!" Ghan yelled, his voice drowning in the sea of chaos around him. He ducked as a piece of the wreckage flew right above his head, dragged by the wind. _

_ The beast wasn't done yet. Whatever damage it couldn't inflict on its first blow, it imparted with his tentacles, wrapping around any men and ship still whole in its proximity. _

_ Ghan's ship was far enough not to be noticed, but that didn't mean they were safe. They still had an avalanche to survive: the spirit emerging from the dunes had caused a wave that now threatened to bury them beneath a mountain of sand, never to be found again.  _

_ Every passenger was fighting against it with everything they had, even Jaya sandbent one handedly, while covering both kids with her body. _

_ They made it out by the breath of a hair, but in the meantime, the beast grew bored of fishing for what little remained of their fleet and finally noticed them. It was their turn. _

_ "Save yourselves!" Ghan heard someone said, and not a second after, his men were all jumping off the sailer, manipulating the sand around them to make it out of there as quickly as humanly possible.  _

_ He would have done the same if it wasn't for Jaya. Despite having two of her own to take care of, she was helping Ghan's father out of the ship, as a plank from one of the destroyed sailers had impacted him, injuring his arm.  _

_ His father made it out of the ship and helped Akemi down. Ghan backtracked and aided Jaya. Once in the ground, everyone opened their own way through the dunes, trying to make it out alive. _

_ But there was nowhere to run, the beast was upon them, and even though Ghan didn't want to look back at it, he could still hear it, he could  _ feel  _ it in his bones. And when a tentacle rose above them, he knew there was nothing else to do. He closed his eyes. _

_ But much to his surprise, when he opened them again, he wasn't dead. Jaya had bent them a shelter to hide in beneath the surface, solidifying the sand above their heads and around them, saving their lives, at least for a little while longer. _

_ "Where is my father?" He looked around. _

_ The shelter was barely big enough for them as it was, and didn't seem solid at all with cracks beginning to creep up the walls. Jaya would have killed for some solid earth right then. _

_ "I'm sorry" she managed to say through the strain of keeping the shelter up, both of her trembling hands raised above her head, almost knee deep in sand. Akemi was between them, struggling to hold the baby in her arms. _

_ Overcoming the initial shock, Ghan mechanically followed suit, also raising his hands to better support the shelter, seeking to take some of the load off of Jaya, but the left wall had already begun crumbling. They were living on borrowed time. _

_ "Please take them out of here" Jaya almost cried, but Ghan hesitated. There was no way she would be able to keep the walls up by herself "Please, Ghan" but she already knew that.  _

_ Ghan cradled the baby, and told Akemi to hop onto his back and hold tight. He opened a way out of the shelter and without looking back broke through the surface, hearing the sound of crumbling debris behind him. _

_ He wanted to curl up in a ball and cry together with Akemi and the baby, but he knew he couldn't. He had to honor his words to Jaya. _

_ He surfed through the dunes, bending the sand beneath his feet to propel him forward until he saw the Si Wong Rock in the distance. It wasn't ideal, but he'd take a buzzing wasp over a gigantic purple beast any day. _

_ They reached one of the craters on the side of the rock. It was dark and deep, incredibly moist given they were in the desert. And it could also be the home of a murderous insect. He put Akemi down. _

_ "Shoot fire, as much as you can" he instructed, his voice raspy and dry both from thirst and grief. Akemi looked up at him, confused. Firebending was forbidden. “You won't get in trouble. I promise" Akemi then obeyed, and extending both arms in front of her, scorched the walls of the tunnel with blue fire, the musk of organic matter burning filling their noses.  _

_ Ghan sat Akemi on the ground with the baby placed on her legs at the far end of the crater.  _

_ "No matter what, you stay here" Ghan grabbed Akemi's face to force her gaze on him, wiping her tears away with his thumbs "And from now on, use your firebending, protect yourself, protect your brother" Ghan pointed at the crying baby. "I'll be back with help" _

_ Ghan exited the cave leaving two crying children behind. He found a stick that might or might not have been a wasp's severed limb, and nailed it to the ground next to the crater's mouth. He unbound his wrappings, and tied them around the end of the stick making a bootlegged flag. That way he would be able to find the crater among all the others. To find them. Cause he would find them. He would be back. Everything would be okay. It had to be. _

_ But when Ghan came back, only his bindings remained, waving at the mercy of the wind, the children already gone.  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did not write this chapter as much as I birthed it (tmi?). I hope you liked my word baby.  
> Be kind to it, wash your hands, and don't hord toilet paper.
> 
> On that note, I don't know how many of you are quarantined, but I'd be up to upploading twice a week to help the time pass by, I know I've been writing more than usual.  
> So, tell me if you'd want that or to stick to once a week uploads. Take care!


	20. Misunderstandings

"I thought they were dead" Ghan spoke, after a prolonged silence "I thought I had killed them by leaving them alone" the room felt cold. Ghan's statement was so painfully personal that every soul listening felt like an uninvited guest "I should have never left them alone" he cried softly.

Asami and Korra held on to each other. Asami's nails inadvertently left little crescent moons on Korra's hand, while Korra's knuckles lost circulation clenched around Asami's waist. It was a strange feeling, watching this man break in front of them, and not be able to do something about it.

"I tried going back to the desert" he wiped his tears with a dirty sleeve, leaving a dark stain across his face "I tried joining the other tribes, but I couldn't forget. No one believed what happened and it didn't take long for the desert to start messing with my head. It was driving me crazy" he sniffled "I saw mirages of Jaya everywhere, telling me I’d let her down, left her children out to die" he looked down, tears continuously streaming down his face “A part of me thinks she gave herself up to it. To the Spirit. So it would leave the kids alone.” he laughed darkly “I know it sounds crazy. I’ve been told so plenty of times already. But they weren’t there, they didn’t see it: that _thing_ went away with her. Half a dozen sailers it destroyed, yet it didn’t stop until it had Jaya” He sighed, her passionate tone quickly replaced by the usual grief “She gave us time to escape. She died for them, and I still couldn't save them" the silence returned and everyone held their breath, not wanting a sigh interrupting the man.

"I loved her; you know. Jaya" he confessed "I loved her with all my heart, but she had gone through so much already. She came to us pregnant looking for refuge from the man that killed her husband and Akemi's parents. She adopted the girl as her own, and shortly after gave birth to her son. She was exhausted, you could see it in her eyes. So, I decided to wait, I didn't want to add up to her troubles" his words came out heavy with regret "I loved her, but she died, and I'll never get to tell her how much" he looked up, and stared at the one-way mirror "But then you told me Akemi was alive. At least I did that much for Jaya" he looked down again, his voice breaking "I just wish I could've saved her little boy too" he broke down crying, hiding his face in his hands. Lao-Tzu approached him, and rested a hand on Ghan's shaking shoulders. 

"Thank you so much, Sir" he then said, his voice weak.

Lin shivered and looked at Asami and Korra, who still seemed a little spaced out. She then obscured the one-way mirror, the man disappearing behind it along with the heart wrenching whimpers.

"Can we thank him?" Asami blurted out in a whisper, still looking at the darkened mirror.

"I think it's best if we leave him alone, he's been through enough as it is" both women nodded absentmindedly "Any thoughts?"

"It can't be a coincidence that Jaya was running away only months before being taken down by a spirit. Nilak has to have something to do with this. He must have been hunting her down" Korra responded, missing the point.

"Yeah, I know, I don't need you two for that, I have agents working on it as we speak" Lin was only talking to Korra, Asami still looking at nothing.

"Then why did you want us here?" Korra complained. 

"Because this proves Akemi is an orphan" Asami answered, and Korra knees weakened. _Stupid._ She had been so convinced they were going to take Akemi away to her _real_ family, she never stopped to consider the opposite.

"That's why the social worker is here, to evaluate Akemi and update her status" Lin clarified.

"Don't you need proof of death?" Asami asked.

"Not after a year without a missing child report, no. And besides, we wouldn't know whose proof of death we'd need. We couldn't find Akemi in the system; she didn't exist in our records until you found her." Lin breathed in "Look, I thought I was giving you guys good news"

Asami and Korra looked at each other, knowing exactly what the other one was thinking. It _was_ good news. Such good news in fact, that they both wanted to cry and laugh and hug the little girl waiting for them in the other room. But there was this other bitter feeling; the feeling of knowing that for them to find Akemi, the girl had to lose so much first.

"Do I call the social worker to start the paperwork or what?" Lin snapped, losing her patience. 

"We need to talk to Akemi first" both women responded at unison. Lin breathed out and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Fine" she agreed reluctantly "But don't take  _too_ long, I hate having Social Services looming near my precinct for too long" she opened the door to let them out.

Outside in the waiting room was Akemi, and alongside her Jin-Li sat on the ground, her brown pencil skirt no longer looking so uptight laying on the precinct’s dirty floor. She was presumably the one levitating the pebble Korra gave Akemi, making the girl chase it around the room. She stopped running around as soon as she saw the two women stepping into the room and exclaimed excited:

"Look! I'm an earthbender!" she extended her hand towards the floating pebble and smiled wide. The women looked at Jin-Li, confused. Akemi didn't seem the same kid they had left her with.

"She insisted on waiting for you guys out here" the Social Worker said and with a small move of her finger made the pebble jump onto Akemi's hand. 

"She seems… happier" Korra pointed out.

"Yeah, I'm good with kids" she dismissed, standing up and dusting herself off as she approached them. "And now that times aren't as pressing: a pleasure to meet you Avatar Korra, Mrs. Sato" she bowed, and the women followed suit. “I guess we have a few things so go over”

Turns out Jin-Li was pretty decent when she wasn't trying to rip their child out of their arms, although them not being so on edge might also have something to do with their change of heart. Korra and Asami talked to her for a while concerning the adoption process and agreed there was no need to rush things, as long as the girl stayed with them. They wrapped up the conversation after sometime of Akemi tugging on Asami’s clothes insistently. The girl had grown bored after trying to levitate the pebble herself with no results other than strenuous looks.

“Can we go now?” she asked.

“Yeah, let’s go home” Asami said and the girl immediately ran to the door. “Hey wait up” and there was no time left for goodbyes as the two women ran after her. 

The arrival home came as a relief, they were so convinced they would return to an empty house, without the laughter, the running around and the casual fire related incident, that when they opened the front door and the girl jumped onto a sleeping Naga, they thought they would never be happier. 

Naga startled awake, and greeted the kid lying on her with a lick to the face. Akemi let out a series of disgusted noises mixed in with laughter.

Korra looked at Asami, and squeezed her hand. It didn't come without weight, though. They still had Ghan's story on their mind, and the touchy conversation they'd need to have with Akemi later.

Although, later came sooner than Asami had expected, as Korra interpreted her gaze as a go ahead to discuss one of the most important topics of their life with the four-year-old.

"Akemi, can you come here for a second?" Both Naga and the girl rose their heads. Akemi approached them meekly, alarmed by the unusual seriousness to Korra's tone. The Avatar kneeled down to her height.

_ Okay, this is happening.  _ Asami accepted the fact, joining Korra on the floor, were most life changing discussions should be had.

"You know while you were playing with Jin-Li, how we were in another room?" The girl nodded hesitantly. Korra looked at her wife and placed a hand on her thigh, Asami grinned and gave her a barely-there-nod.

_ Yes, we are definitely doing this.  _ And Asami hadn't even taken off her coat yet.

"Well, that was because we were talking over some things, some grown up things. About you" Korra didn't notice the flash of fear that crossed the girl's face for the briefest of moments, but Asami took note and almost warned Korra to stop talking, but Korra kept going before she could speak up "About how you've been living with us for a while now and well... we wanted to talk to you about that" Akemi froze up in place, the glimpse of fear Asami had noticed a second ago coming back with a vengeance.

Korra saw something was wrong, and looked at Asami and then at Akemi for answers, only finding the girl's distraught look. She didn’t know where she went wrong, but opened her mouth nonetheless, trying to find the words to fix it, but none came out. Instead she heard: 

"You don’t like me anymore!" And before their very eyes, Akemi disappeared upstairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise! Jaya is not Akemi’s mother.  
> Didn’t plan for it to be a plot twist, but there you go. I just wrote this two chapters back to back and even though I could have sworn I mentioned it in ch19, upon rereading it, turns out I didn’t.  
> Sorry. My bad. Hope you are not too disappointed. The origin story is still to come, as in, I still have to write it. 
> 
> About the uploading schedule, because I hate myself, and love you, expect another chapter on Thursday. And again two new chapters by next week if I manage to get over this writing block *sweats profusely*  
> Take care!


	21. Family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonus Chapter! Enjoy

"Come on sweetie, it's okay, we aren’t getting rid of anybody, we swear" Asami spoke to the shadow of the girl under their bed, where she had been hiding for the past half hour.

Apparently, Korra's approach to telling Akemi they wanted to adopt her had the exact opposite impression. From how weird they’ve been acting all morning, to the visit to the police station and the meeting with the strange woman, Akemi was convinced it was all a ploy to get rid of her and no words were convincing her otherwise.

And they were getting desperate.

"She is not coming out" Asami said in a whisper to her wife kneeled beside her.

"I can see that" Korra lowered her voice even more "And I think she can still hear us" 

"That's it, I'm moving the bed" Asami shot up to her feet but Korra held her hand and brought her back down.

"No, you'll do nothing of the sort" she said in a tense whisper "You'll spook her. Maybe we should leave her alone, give her some space" 

"She is four, she doesn’t need space!" Asami scream-whispered at her in a volume that made Korra wonder why they were even bothering with the secrecy. 

"Except when she is sleeping on _my_ side of the bed, then she needs all the space in the world" Asami's glare told Korra that wasn't the time for jokes "Well, what then?"

"I don't know, that's the whole point” she stopped to think for a second, before concluding: "I'm moving the bed" Korra held her back down once again.

"And you'll tell the police what happened when you squash her"

"Rather squashed than starved" 

"You didn't just say that" common sense was no longer part of the conversation, and Korra could sense the hysteria escalating to dangerous levels "Wait, no, you can't panic, I'm panicking, we said we'd take turns!"

"Well you better skip yours, because this is your fault and I'm already spiraling" Asami mumbled an octave higher.

"So, this is all _my_ fault?" Korra exclaimed, offended. 

“Not now” Asami scolded and shifted in place to peak under the bed, turning her back on Korra “Akemi, you are not going anywhere, please come out here” she tried switching to a sterner tone, but it ended up sounding like a plea. Akemi didn’t budge.

“Come on Tiny, Mom and I just want to talk to you, that’s a-” the rest of her words hitched in her throat as she realized what she’d just said and covered her face with both hands, no longer trusting her mouth with words. 

Asami turned around slowly to face her, looking at her wife as if she had just murdered her favorite uncle and was ready to avenge him. 

Korra wasn’t sure if she should backtrack or shut up, so her brain decided to do something in between: stammer half-baked thoughts that made no sense. Maybe if she kept that up Asami would think she had a stroke and take mercy on her. 

A rustling sound coming from under the bed prevented the bloodshed. Both women turned around and stared at the shadow. 

“Is Asami my mom now?” Now Asami was the one stuttering. 

“She could be” Korra blurted out, but then backtracked and added: “Only if you want” Hours passed by in the seconds Akemi remained silent. Asami placed her hand over Korra’s, squeezing it tightly. 

“How?” the girl finally asked. The women looked at each other, and for once, Asami was glad Akemi was under the bed so she couldn’t see their clueless faces. Because, really, how could _she_ be Akemi’s mom? How could she replace the woman that gave her life? How could she live up to Jaya, the woman who had saved the girl’s life in exchange of her own? She drew a shaky breath before answering.

“Well, sometimes, very special people get to choose their moms” 

“Like you chose Korra?” the girl started approaching them slowly, her words accompanied by the rustling of her clothes dragging across the floor. 

“Something like that, yes” Silence again. Korra’s hand losing circulation in Asami’s grip.

“Are you my chosen mom, then?” Even if Asami couldn't see Akemi from under the bed, she could picture her clear as day, with the frown she often wore when she wanted to be taken seriously. 

"You get to choose, tiny, that's the whole point" Korra responded looking at Asami with a mixture of fear and excitement dancing in her eyes.

"Do you want us to be?" Asami was mostly fear.

They got no answer from Akemi, who instead dragged herself across the floor and out from under the bed. She knelt facing them, covered in dust and Naga's sheddings, wearing the exact frown Asami was picturing, her eyes piercing all the way to the soul.

“That way you can’t send me away?” she inquired.

“We would never do that. No matter what” Asami reassured.

“You promise?” she didn’t lose her seriousness. 

“We promise” Korra nodded assertively.

Akemi’s features softened as she crawled onto Asami’s lap and clung to her neck; the by now familiar weight welcomed by the engineer, who hugged her back.

“Yes please” the girl whispered. And Asami suddenly understood: they couldn’t replace Jaya nor her birth mother. They could never become what Akemi had lost. But they didn’t need to. They would be whatever she needed them to be moving forward, be there for her for the ones that couldn’t. 

Asami placed a kiss on Akemi’s head and closed her eyes, soaking it all in, still holding on to Korra’s hand. When she reopened them again, Korra was in shambles next to her, unable to contain her quiet sobbing. Asami chuckled and moved her hand to cup Korra’s cheek. The action caught Akemi’s attention.

"Why are you crying? she asked worried, leaning her head, the already messed up topknot dropping to the side.

Korra wiped her tears away and smiled, trying to pull herself together and concoct an answer. But before she could say anything, Akemi quickly looked back at Asami, the serious frown once again creasing her forehead, an equally serious question on her mind:

"Can someone have two chosen moms?" Asami couldn't help but laugh as she nodded, a few tears escaping her eyes despite her best efforts. "See?" Akemi looked at the Avatar "Don't cry, you can be my chosen mom too" she crawled from Asami's lap to Korra's, where she was squeezed and kissed until they were all laughing. 

"I knew all those ice creams would get to you" Korra said, planting one last kiss on Akemi’s cheek. The girl then froze for a second, a thought popping on her mind. She stood up and quickly ran to the door, excitedly. “Hey, where are you going?!” Korra exclaimed, confused.

"I have to tell Naga!” the girl answered from the distance.

"Be careful" Asami said, watching her go, a new kind of warmth nestling her heart, her soul ridded of a weight she didn’t know she was carrying. 

Because the last puzzle piece had come into place, and with it, the complete picture of what their future would be like. A future she never expected to live, but now knew couldn’t live without. She stared at that future free of reservation, every unknown no longer daunting, but enticing. She couldn’t wait to experience it all.

But first, there was a lot that needed figuring out. She got up to her feet.

"Okay, we have to call Jin-Li and set up an interview. Do you think we'll need a lawyer? I hope not, but If we do, I can ask Kaoru from work, he for sure knows a good one" she held out a hand to help Korra up "Oh, wait, where is Jin-Li's card?" She checked her pockets "Maybe it's in my other coat" Asami was talking out loud, but Korra knew she wasn't speaking to her. "Let me go check" Asami threatened to go through the door, but Korra pulled her into her arms. 

"Asami?" Korra said, smiling from ear to ear, their faces almost touching.

"Mmm?" The engineer responded, her brain still buzzing. 

"I think we have a daughter" Korra laughed, the sound alone ripping Asami out of her to-do list and back to the present, where two gentle hands were cradling her face. She wrapped her arms around Korra and now they both smiled, touching foreheads. 

"I guess we do. We have a daughter" the words sounded right. 

Korra kissed her slow and tenderly, ecstatic smiles sneaking in between pecs. Korra’s happiness spread through Asami like sunshine, the certainty that whatever was in the cards for them would work out as long as they stayed together burning through her skin.

Hardly even noticing, Asami started slightly pushing Korra towards the bed while playfully tugging on her hair, deepening the kiss. Soon enough, though, little steps followed by four ramming paws running upstairs interrupted them. They broke apart sloppily, the bedroom suddenly crowded. They looked at each other. They better get used to that.

“Tiny, let’s go downstairs” Korra stood up from the bed, tidying her hair with one hand while ushering Akemi out of the bedroom with the other. But Akemi didn’t budge, grabbing a fistful of Naga’s hair, gathering her courage. Both women stopped on their tracks, their moods suddenly changing, worried they had pressured the girl into something she was too young to understand.

“What is it?” Asami gently prompted.

Akemi gave Naga a final pat and approached them both ceremoniously, looking up at them with big pleading eyes as she asked meekly:

"Can you be Hakue's chosen moms too? He lost _his_ mom in the desert, and he's been sad ever since" The grim reality suddenly dawned on the women.

It seemed like they weren’t out of hard conversations just yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This maybe the fluffiest thing I have ever writen, and I still don't know how I feel about it xd  
> But there you go, hope you liked it.


	22. The Warning

“Hurry up, Tiny, or Naga will go without us” she yelled at the girl from the door. Naga was waiting for her nightly stroll outside, by the fence, doing a lousy job at being patient, whining and jumping around, wishing Korra would hurry up already.

“Coming” Akemi responded. She was meticulously arranging all of her plushies in a perfectly straight line along their sofa, for reasons that escaped Korra entirely. Maybe Akemi was spending too much time with Asami. 

“Don’t forget your coats!” the engineer said from her place at the table, currently hogged by a bunch of papers all lined up tidily in front of her.

Akemi was definitely spending too much time with Asami.

And If she knew something about Asami was that sometimes it took force to get her away from her work, so Korra went to get the girl herself, picking her up over her shoulder, a flying lemur plush still dangling from Akemi's hand. 

“Wanna come by?” she asked Asami, the last words muffled by a flying lemur to the face. Akemi laughed mischievously.

“You two go ahead, I’ll finish up before you come back” Asami said.

“Kay, be back in a bit” Korra planted a quick peck on Asami’s lips, before heading to the door, but a sudden pull on her collar told her otherwise, so she backtracked, returning to Asami's side "If Naga breaks the fence you better learn woodbending, cause I don't know how to use a hammer" she said to the girl over her shoulder, bringing her closer to the table. And still dangling from Korra's back, Akemi handed her plush to the engineer.

"To keep you company" she said, with the most shit eating grin if ever Korra has seen one. Asami kissed Akemi on the forehead.

"I'll tuck you in when you come back" she added, placing the flying lemur besides her on the table.

"Can we go now?" Said Korra looking over her shoulder. The girl nodded and grabbed Korra’s braid to stabilize herself on her back. Asami chuckled under her breath at the scene before going back to work.

"Coats!" She didn't need to look back to know Korra had forgotten them.

"Thanks!" This one yelled, quickly grabbing Akemi's cardigan and closing the door behind them. 

Naga had plucked a good amount of grass with her claws while waiting for them, but had luckily spared the fence. Without wasting more time Korra propped Akemi onto Naga's saddle and sat behind her, hugging her over the rains, making sure she was secure in place. 

She whistled, giving Naga the go ahead, and before she could airbend the gate open, the polar bear dog jumped over it, opening her way through the night.

Korra looked down for a second to see Akemi closing her eyes, enjoying the wind in her face as they rode. It was a widely different reaction to the first time she had asked to ride Naga. She had grabbed Korra for dear life, eyes wide with terror, her ego the only thing stopping her from begging to come down. But Akemi had grit, and surpassed the initial fright, she quickly became a big fan of their nightly strolls.

They slowly started to become part of the routine once Korra discovered, in a parenting equivalent to winning the lottery, that it apparently made the child sleepy, usually ending up with Akemi passing out in Korra's arms. 

And tonight was no exception, just as they rode along the docks by the coast, Akemi's head dropped to the side, giving in to exhaustion, her body heavy and floppy against Korra. She commanded Naga to stop and dismounted carefully with Akemi on her arms, carrying on their stroll by foot.

Korra enjoyed this time of day. She had grown to like it, even if nighttime in Republic City could be as busy as in broad daylight, so different from what nights used to be like back home, with its lights and sounds that wouldn’t seize until well past midnight. After all it was well over a decade since she had first set foot in Republic City, and yet it seemed like no time had passed at all. She looked down at Akemi's sleeping face, her mouth slightly opened, breathing heavily. Korra smiled. Well, maybe a _little_ time had passed since.

And right then, walking by the water, the noises of the city drowned by the distance and just enough lamplights to guide their way through the piers, Korra felt right at home. Specially in nights like those, when the drop in temperature made _her_ shiver. But then, maybe she had grown weaker against the cold after being away from the poles for so long. 

Better still make sure Akemi was warm, though.

She stopped walking for a second as she untied the coat around her waist to wrap Akemi in it, Naga growing impatient in front of them.

"I'm sorry, girl, made you wait long enough for the day, huh?" She whispered, trying to comfort the polar bear dog who was fidgeting in place, while herself tried focusing on untangling her coat with one hand and holding Akemi as steadily as possible with the other. 

Naga suddenly froze up and starting to growl. "Okay, okay, I'm almost done, quit whining" Naga's patience was at the low end that day, apparently. But she was done anyways, she covered Akemi's head before looking up and resuming the walk. 

Thing was, Naga was the one not moving this time. She remained positioned in front of Korra, shielding them with her body. The low growl was a warning to whatever thing was creeping in the night. And Korra could suddenly feel it too, making every hair in her body stand on end. She didn't know how, but she knew she needed to get out of there.

That need only increased in urgency when with a single zap, every lamplight in the block went off, leaving only darkness in their wake. 

Korra held a fighting stance, but realized soon enough she was defenseless, both of her arms busy shielding Akemi. She knew she had to flee, but where to? Everything was pitch black around her, her eyes not yet accustomed to the darkness. Far too quickly the familiar scene became menacing, full of sharp edges and dark corners for her attackers to hide in.

Korra managed to get a good enough grip on the girl to free her right hand and produce a self-generated torch to light her way out of there. But the seconds they spent in the darkness were enough for _it_ to creep through the night undistinguished. The black bead it had for eyes reflected back the orange hues of Korra's flame. She only focused on its eyes, too horrified to look at the rest.

The flame went off instants after being lit up, Korra's right hand returning to its rightful place, cradling Akemi's nape protectively, as she drew a circular kick in the general direction of the thing that was following them. The gust of wind it produced impacted its target successfully by the sound of it.

But Korra wasn't about to check, her only concern was getting out of there, feeling true helplessness as she ran with the girl on her arms, guided only by muscle memory and the faint shadows her eyes were now able to discern.

Naga was stepping on her heels behind her. Korra just needed to draw enough distance between them and whatever that thing was to jump onto the polar bear dog and escape. 

But from the corner of her eye, she could see the shadow of the thing following them, moving way too swiftly to be human, approaching at a dangerous speed. Korra didn't let herself panic and instead focused on the next lit lamplight in the distance and sped up, eager to get out of the darkness. Something told her she needed to reach the light.

The same instinct made her kick fire when the figure intercepted her, finally catching up to them. The creature screeched even though Korra didn't project the flame far enough to burn it. But coursing through the space between them, the brightness lingered for a while longer this time. Long enough for the creature to suffer. Long enough for Korra to see it wasn't a creature at all.

It was a human alright, although it could have fooled anyone at first glance. He was… messed up, to say the least. Most of his face and down the left side of his neck was covered in what Korra could only describe as gray melted wax. It looked slimy and moist, like a bad burn, although it had hardened in some places over the scalp where the light had shone on the most. Speaking of scalp, his was dented in the places the black mat of hair didn't cover it. His right eye bulged forwards and didn't blink, rather it opened and closed very slowly, the other eye seemingly human but impossibly black, as if the pupil had taken over the entire organ. The rest of him seemed unaltered, although his thighs seemed thicker than most, and his fingers were elongated and clubbed at the nails. 

Korra put two and two together and knew this was Nilak's doing, only an enraged spirit could cause that kind of wreckage on a body without killing it. The more reason not to trust him.

She drew a circle of fire around her with her foot, the asphalt reluctantly setting aflame. She covered Akemi's head and face with her coat when the man started screeching from the pain, but it didn't last long. The ground suddenly rose and flipped over where the ring of fire was lit, extinguishing it entirely, leaving them once again in the dark.

He was an earthbender.

"Wait, I'm not here to hurt you" the man croaked, his voice raspy and labored, as if drawing breath was painful. Korra stood in place, the voice giving her an exact clue of where the man was standing. She proceeded to throw a kick in his direction, sure she wouldn't miss. But a wall of dirt rose noisily in front of the fire ball. Akemi tussled in her arms. "Please, you have to hear me out" _In your dreams._

Korra wasn't sure how she would get onto Naga quickly and swiftly enough, but the polar bear dog was already at her side. She set a foot on the stirrup hoping her core would do the job her arms coudn’t.

Once again, the sound of earth jumbling filled the air, this time it had shifted to cuff Naga's four paws and the foot Korra still had on the ground. With a turn of her hand she freed herself, but the earth cuff quickly rose again, this time trapping both of her legs up to her knees. 

"Please, there is no much time" he begged, Korra looked back at him one more time. He was in sending bridge position, holding all the cuffs in place. He seemed more than capable of attacking them, given Korra's disadvantage, but he hadn't so far. Maybe she should listen. "It's about your little girl" the man realized he had caught Korra's attention and capitalized on it "Akemi. I know her, Akemi" 

It didn't go as he planned. It struck a nerve with Korra alright, but not for his advantage. She freed her right leg with a kick, landing of her foot on the ground, dissolving Naga's cuffs to smithereens. She shifted Akemi slightly, and with a pull motion with her hand, encased the man in the asphalt he was standing on, only his head poking through. She approached him slowly, holding a flame close to his face.

"What about her?" Korra said, menacing, looking how the man's skin dried and scabbed over in the presence of light. The man seemed to be in too much pain to respond. Korra put off the flame. "What do you want with her?" She repeated, with clenched teeth.

"Nothing. I swear" Korra didn't notice, but her grip on the girl had tightened. "But the people I am with, do" 

"Nilak" she spat with disdain. The man's beady eye opened wide in surprise, the other one just blinked slowly. 

"How did you- It doesn't matter" he shook his head "He wants her. He knows she's with you, he's known for months. He's waiting to strike, but he won't be waiting much longer" 

"I don't get it; she is just a child. What use could she mean to him?" She looked down at the sleeping girl. It made her sick to her stomach thinking about Akemi being alone with that maniac.

"He wants her _because_ she's a child. That's the whole point" he gulped "The Spirits… they don't like _communing_ with humans. They have to be coerced; you've seen it. But that's the easy part. The hard part is making it out alive"

"What's your point?" Korra snapped, more heat than light.

"I'm getting there" the man said, patiently "What I mean is, it's different with kids. Your daughter is the proof. She was the first one. She survived with little to no side effects" Korra was holding Akemi's little fist in her hand, stroking the scars with her thumb. _I wouldn't say none_ "And yet, she got more powerful. Have you ever seen a four-year-old firebend like that? I can only imagine what she could become with proper training. And her fire, I've never seen blue fire" Korra quickly became uncomfortable with the way the man was talking about Akemi. She closed her fist to tighten the clasp of rock around his body. He stopped talking, out of breath.

"What-is-your-point?" She repeated. He gasped for air.

"He wants to create a whole new generation. One both in touch with their earthly selves and their spirit selves. In a literal sense. He thinks spirits and humans shouldn't live separately, the fact that only kids are pure enough to embrace that union reinforces his theory" he looked at Korra meaningfully "After all, the Avatar _is_ half human half spirit" a shiver went down Korra's spine. 

"You seem to have eaten all of his crap. Why are you here then?" 

"Because I've seen it happen" he looked down "I've seen kids possessed by spirits never rise up again, only to be condemned as 'not pure enough'" Korra gave a step back. She remembered the kids back in that basement, and thought just how many more should have been there, but weren't because of Nilak. She thought how Akemi could have easily been one of those kids. "And I've seen children survive it all to never be the same again. I've seen enough to know it should never happen again" 

"Again?" Korra's voice came out faintly.

"That's the other thing I am here to tell you" when he looked up again at Korra, she could see his fiery determination behind every layer of deformity "There are more. He is preparing for another raid on the spirit portal, but this time, you won't be able to stop him"

"Why?" She asked.

"That I cannot say. But you have to save the children before then" the street lights started to light up again slowly, one by one "They are in a compound, downtown, away from our main center of operation" the man looked side to side nervously and with a nod of his chin, the rock encasing him disappeared from around his body.

"Where is Nilak?" Korra asked the free man, not even bothering with trapping him again. 

"You will find out soon enough" was his only answer. He turned around, ready to flee before the last lamplights came on.

"Wait, don't go back with them, we can help you" Korra knew it was a lost cause before the words came out of her mouth, but she had to try.

"No one can help me. Look at me" he turned back around momentarily "Back there I am a hero, and a survivor. Out here I am only an outcast" He stated it as a fact, devoid of feeling "I made my own bed, and I plan to lay on it" were his last words, before running away from the light.

Korra just stood there, watching the moonlight dance in the water over the piers, everything around her back to normal, as if nothing had happened at all. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the very detailed description of the poor frog-man. But If I had to imagine it, you have to read it. Also, I did not forget about Hakue, more on that later. 
> 
> Okay people, sorry to say, but I'm back to once a week uploads. I really wanted to keep uploading twice a week, but med school waits for no pandemic and I already have a thouthand pdf waiting for me in google classroom.   
> I hope this extra long chapter makes up for it. Take care!


	23. Not Alone

_Damn it, Korra_

Asami turned around in her chair to look at the clock for the untempt time in the past twenty minutes. It had been more than an hour since Korra had gone out with Akemi, and she couldn't shake the feeling something was wrong. Maybe she was overreacting. 

She tried focusing on her work. Asami read the report from the first ever medical trial held with her machine over and over again. It said something about using it as treatment for patients with PTSD and ailments regarding memory loss, but the medical jargon escaped her, and she was too scattered to try to understand it anyways. She held eye contact with the lemur plush.

The door opened loudly behind her and Korra came into the house in a whirlwind.

"Korra?" Asami shot up from her chair, but Korra didn't seem to noticed, she instead went straight upstairs with Akemi asleep in her arms.

Asami followed them into their bedroom, the relief eclipsed by how weird Korra was acting. The Avatar only realized Asami's presence once she finished tucking Akemi in their bed and turned around.

"Spirits, Sami, you scared me" she said, startled, bracing her chest.

"Isn't she sleeping in her bed?" Asami inquired, nodding towards Akemi, the weird feeling in her gut returning.

"I'd rather she be close to us tonight" Korra responded, evasive.

"What happened?" Asami held her hand and led Korra out of the room. She didn't even get to fully close the door behind her when Korra draped her arms around her in what felt like a desperate embrace. "What happened?" She repeated, softly this time, into the crook or Korra's neck. 

"I… I" Korra stammered, and Asami noticed she was shaking.

"It's okay, I got you" she steadied herself around Korra's arms and tightened the embrace, letting Korra's weight fell onto her. Korra sighed, and Asami could feel the tight muscles in her back begin to relax beneath her fingers "Take your time"

"I put her in danger. And I didn't even know it" Korra begun after a while "I couldn't stop it" she tensed up again, closing her fists against Asami's back "If something happens to her, it’ll be on me. And I don't know if I could live with that" words hitched in Asami's throat, threatening to escape her lips, but she bit her tongue, letting Korra vent "I think I am way over my head with this whole parenting thing, Asami" The engineer broke apart, her hands gripping Korra's forearms firmly.

"I think it's too late to be having that thought, champ, we are all in already" she smiled trying to lighten the mood, seeking Korra's eyes, but these eluded her, stuck to the ground. Asami’s weak smile fell from her face, replaced by a pained look. She squeezed Korra’s arms gently "Tell me what happened" 

"A follower of Nilak came to warn me" Asami tried hiding her surprise to the best of her abilities "He wants her. Nilak. She is part of some kind of sick experiment. Kids apparently cope better with spiritual energy than adults do. Akemi was the first, and he doesn't plant to stop with her" her words were left hanging in the air, until Asami broke the silence.

"We can deal with Nilak" she said with a slight nod of her head. "We can keep Akemi safe" 

"I don't think you understand what we are up against" Korra said, defeated.

"I do, listen to me, if he really wants her, what better parents to make sure that doesn't happen than us?" Asami looked at Korra with both reassurance and fierce conviction written in her eyes "You are the Avatar. I am trained and have a whole company at my disposal. The airbenders are like family. Your actual family runs the poles. And I'm sure Su would welcome us in Zaofu if things get too dangerous out here. We even have Mako in the United Forces" she placed a cold hand against Korra’s cheek while the edge of a smile formed in the corner of the Avatar's mouth. “We got this”

"I doubt we’ll need to involve Mako in this whole ordeal" Korra looked up and laughed lightly.

"You know what I mean" Asami smiled "We are not alone" Korra sighed and nodded in agreement.

"It really takes a village, doesn't it?"

"Bolin was right after all" Asami said with a chuckle "Can we sleep now? I was just getting used to having you all to myself, but I guess with the winter coming up it's not half bad having her sleep with us" Asami said teasingly, nodding towards the sleeping girl behind the closed door.

"She gets really warm, doesn't she?" Korra whispered, quietly getting into the room.

"Is that a firebender thing? Should we be worried?" Asami winced when the bed shrieked as they got under the sheets. They fell silent as they watched Akemi toss and turn in her sleep.

"Beats me" Korra said once the girl settled between them "You dated Mako the longest, you should know" 

"Don't remind me" she scoffed.

Korra sank into the mattress and even though the proximity to Asami and Akemi was somewhat comforting, she couldn't help to think about the night’s events as the exhaustion lulled her to sleep. 

Until she remembered something, her eyes shooting wide open.

"Asami?" She muttered in the dark.

"Mmh? this one barely answered.

"You awake?"

"Was getting there” she said groggily, with her eyes still shut.

“ _You know who’”_ Korra placed a gentle hand over Akemi’s ear “He… he might be holding more kids’ hostage”

"We’ll figure it out, I'm sure the police force can deal with that"

"That's not the point" Asami frowned, eyes closed..

"Help me along here, honey" she groaned.

"What if Hakue didn't die in the desert? What if he is among those children?"

Now Asami was also wide awake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does this chapter advance the plot? No.  
> Is it way too short? Yes.   
> But am I already buried in uni work? Also, yes, very much so, please send help. And red bull. 
> 
> That said, after this chapter, everything will start to unravel pretty quickly. So, I may have to take a week off to pull every plot string together before posting. Sorry about that, but I want to make sure this part is the best it can be.  
> Hope you liked this chapter and that you'll be patient with me!


	24. Hakue

A drop of sweat rolled off Korra's brow. She wiped it with her wrist but soon after another started to form in its place. 

She didn’t remember being this anxious before a mission in her whole adult life. So many things were on the line that no matter how hard she tried not thinking about it, she couldn’t keep the thoughts from filling up her mind. From the possibility of finding Akemi’s brother, to facing Nilak and her apparently impending doom, Korra didn’t feel like herself going into this.

She gave her own thigh the death stare when it started twitching, and dried her sweaty hands on her shirt. She needed to pull herself together.

Korra inhale deeply. At least Asami was safe and sound with Akemi in Air Temple Island. Her nightly encounter with the tattletale had made her acutely aware of how vulnerable they were when left alone with the girl. So, despite Asami’s protest, they had agreed to be around people when they weren’t together. So far it was working out, and if anything, it was nice having an excuse to see their friends so often.

A pebble hit her temple with suspicious accuracy. She glanced across the alleyway, from where Lin was shooting daggers at her, noticing Korra’s scattered look. She shifted in place, trying to refocus on the task at hands, and looked up at the ugly building, something akin to vertigo settling in her stomach. 

Locating the hideout had been surprisingly easy. It was an abandoned warehouse in the outskirts of Republic City. Back in the day it used to be an up-and-coming industrial area, but had been heavily run down by the Spirit vines after Harmonic Convergence. It wasn’t a residential area, so fixing it was in no one’s priority list and by the time the City had enough funding to do something about it, it had already been taken over by the triads.

It was the police first and only guess, and checking which building still had running water and electricity led them straight to the warehouse. It was three stories tall, but the top one was inhabitable and had shown no activity during reconnaissance. The other two, however, had every window boarded up from the inside and seemed like an ideal place to harbor illegal operations. According to the police, that was, in Korra’s eyes the whole place looked like a lost cause, ready to fall apart. It sent chills down her spine thinking kids were being kept inside. 

Korra heard the sound of metal soles retracting at unison and she knew it was go-time. A small team of sensing Earthbenders appeared from the shadows and circled a patch of grass to the side of the building, right above where the basement should be, according to the blueprints Asami had provided. They were going on a limb assuming the kids were hidden in the basement, but it was their best bet if they wanted to get them all out of there before things got ugly.

Korra hated this kind of sneaky approach. She wanted to burst through the main door and bend every and each one of those lackeys into oblivion, and burn the whole place down in her way out. No intelligence, no tacticians, no elite task force needed. Only her, the four elements and the sheer hate that filled her. 

But as she saw the Sensing earthbender team opening the ground beneath them with the finesse of a scalpel tearing through flesh, Korra understood why they didn’t have any other option. They couldn’t risk endangering the kids, nor letting any of the perps escape in a fool’s quest. If they ever wanted to find Nilak, they needed one of his lackeys to crack, and the police force had gone to great lengths to ensure a successful mission. 

And it showed. Now with the City behind them with their full support and funding, no resource was spared. A couple dozen agents were stationed around the building and in nearby areas. Specialized task forces were entrusted to raid the building, some on the ground alongside Korra, some waiting in adjacent buildings, they were even some on the rooftop in case someone tried their luck through there. They were ready, and they were sending Nilak a message: we can also be force to be reckoned with.

The earthbenders disappeared into the ground, and everyone stood by silently, trying to listen for what was happening out of their sight. After a few minutes of quiet suspense, rustling of little steps and muffled whisperers filled the night, and after them came the children, peeking through the tunnel one by one.

A collective sigh of relief was let out by everyone watching. Korra, Lin and a few other officers approached to help the earthbenders get the kids to the surface. They were scared, but also old enough to know they were there to help them, so they remained quiet for the most part. Korra wrapped them with blankets on their way out and guided them towards the police cars. She felt lightheaded with relief when the last one came out seemingly unharmed, no sign of spiritual meddling.

There were eight kids total, five boys and three girls, all of them older than Akemi. She didn’t get the chance to talk to them before the police took them away to safety, but she knew they were too old to be Hakue.

Her feeling of relief was suddenly hijacked by grief washing over her. Until now, she didn’t know how much she had counted on finding Hakue. The alternative, once too tragic to consider, now faced her head on: she would have to explain to her daughter that on top of everything else, she had also lost a brother. That a little boy had lost his life, as many before him. All thanks to one man.

She glanced at the warehouse chained doors, her sadness rapidly morphing into bloodthirst anger. She ran towards it, seeing red, a column of water following her. With a quick flicker of her fingers, the water froze around the chains, that shattered under Korra’s kick.

Korra and the legion of agents behind her stepped inside, immediately feeling the musky scent of mold and humidity thickening the air. Flames started combusting around her: firebending officers lighting their way through the open floor. Korra took a quick look around, searching for someone to aim all of her fury at, but all she saw were rancid brown walls with humidity stains creeping up all the way to ceiling, makeshift tables and spools made of old wooden crates tossed across the floor.

The officers started swiping the place, checking for hidden spots, but Korra was too riled up for that. Her tunnel vision led her straight to the spiral metal stair in the corner. She climbed it two steps at a time, some kind of warning coming from behind she was to deaf to hear.

The second floor was in even worse condition than the previous one, splintered wooden columns shakily carried the weight of the ceiling above. Instead of tables and spools, there were bare mattresses tossed haphazardly on the ground, the humidity reeking from the wooden floor beneath them taking over the cloth, big moldy patches darkening the flowery pattern. 

And next to them, to Korra’s delight, were about five of Nilak’s lackeys, all looking dumbfounded and defenseless. Korra approached one of them looking for a fight, feeling the rage bubbling in her chest like hot lava. She jumped wielding a fire knife, her defense up, expecting some resistance, maybe an attack from behind from one of the remaining four.

Korra landed on top the woman, and she fell backwards into the mattress, arms covering her face, chest heaving with anguish. But she wasn’t fighting back, not even a push. None of them were, in fact. Korra looked around at the four shadows, kneeled in the darkness, arms held high in surrender.

The Avatar froze up, unsure on what to do, wielding the knife mere inches away from the woman’s face right under her. The warm glow of the fire shined on her soft features and on the purplish scar that covered her eye socket all the way into the eyeball. It was like staring into the void.

She was just another one of Nilak’s victims, Korra understood, lowering the knife. She gently pinned the woman down to the ground as she waited for the officers that flooded the place a heartbeat after to take them all out of the building in cuffs.

Confusion and worry fought for Korra’s attention inside her head. Five of them, only one of her, and still, they didn’t even try taking her down. Something was wrong. She counted beds. There were six mattresses on the ground, only five people, and one story left to check. There were no stairs this time, only a gaping hole in the ceiling looking up at the sky. She propelled herself through if with airbending, reaching the final story.

Debris was everywhere, from big chunks of concrete, fallen rafters to shattered columns, it hung in the air around them as specs of dust and rubble, subtly lit by moonlight seeping through the broken ceiling and the cracks on the wall. It looked eerie, as stepping into another world.

But when she tried taking a step, the floor threatened to collapsed under her weight, as did every plank she set foot on as she carefully made her way across. The complaining sounds of rotting wood added to the pounding of Korra’s heart and her labored breathing, filling up the empty room in a symphony of echoes. And in the midst of all the sounds, a new one appeared, a more hopeful one, that made Korra’s heart flutter with a sudden rush of hope. 

A cry. The high-pitched cry of a baby startled awake, quickly followed by a futile attempt at muffling it. Korra ran to where the sound appeared to come from: a nook beneath a big piece of rubble leaned against a wall. Inside was not only the baby, but a man who tried rocking the bundle back to silence. 

Korra took a good look him. The green scales covering his face reflected the moonlight like tiny mirrors, sparkling with his every move. The scales faded back into bluish skin at his neck, scab like calluses covering his arms all the way to his wrist, were it ended in webbed hands, now covering the boy’s mouth, muffling his cries. 

"Let him cry, he can’t breathe!" Korra said alarmed, watching the baby's face reddening beneath the webbed fingers. The man looked down, a shadow of worry crossing his face for a split second. But he didn't let go, instead he looked up at Korra defiantly "Let him go. We already know you are here" her fingers set aflame, letting the man see the officers appearing behind her through the gap on the floor.

He looked at them and then back at Korra, slowly easing his hand off the baby’s mouth, the cries invigorated by the sudden rush of oxygen.

"Hand him to me" Korra asked with all the calm she could muster. She held both hands out but the man didn't let go of the baby, and when Korra gave an insisting step forward, he swiftly uncorked his water skin, freezing the water that came out into a sharp icicle, inches away from the boy's face.

Panic filled Korra at the sight, but remained stoic. The boy must have been shy of two years old, big enough for the man to struggle to get ahold of as he squirmed and cried, the pointy end of the dagger shaking dangerously close to his face. But it didn’t escape her how the man was still rocking him, almost like an ingrained mechanism that came alive when the boy cried.

Korra looked back at the officers, and dismissed them with the wave of a hand, eliciting alarmed looks, she could almost feel Lin swearing at her for high-jacking the operation. But Korra repeated herself, sure of what she was doing. Sort of.

She crouched down to look at the man in the eyes.

"You are not going to harm him" It was half a question, half a statement. The man didn't speak up, but brought the dagger closer to the boy's face, the translucid surface of the weapon refracting a beam of moonlight coming from the ceiling. 

The effect lasted mere seconds, but it was enough to catch the boy's attention. He stopped crying and stretched his chubby arms up to grab the dagger, but the weapon turned back to water before he could reach it, a gasp of concern escaping the man. That was all the confirmation Korra needed.

"I know you care about him" she stated "Why would you carry him all the way up here if you didn't? Why not leave him in the basement with the other children?" 

"He is my hostage" Korra was surprised by the man's raspy voice.

"And how is that working out for you?" Korra was growing impatient, and wanted to yank the baby away from him. Even if he cared about the boy, he still had _some_ connection with Nilak by the looks of it "If you care about him, hand him over, you know what his future will look like if he stays here" the man brought the baby closer to him, almost protectively "Give him a chance at a normal life" the man hid his face in the boy's blanket as he cradled him, and gave him a kiss goodbye before handing him over to Korra.

"Please, keep him away from here… from _him"_ the way he said it sounded ominous.

"I will" and she meant it. 

Officers approached her from behind to cuff the man up, while Korra stayed frozen in place, terrified to move now that she held the boy. She had expected for him to cry as soon as he left the man's arms, but he hadn't, and she was now terrified the slightest of moves would make him do so. 

She took a good look at him for the first time, as the boy stared back at her with the same intensity. Korra couldn't quite make up the color of his eyes in the darkness, but they were big and watery from crying, framed by thick eyelashes, scrutinizing everything around him with somber attention. He had dimples in both his cheeks even when he wasn't smiling, and freckles sparkled around his nose. But his hair might have been his most prominent feature, Korra had never seen a toddler with that much hair before. She carefully ran a hand through it, earning herself a curious look from the boy, and in return, he reached for her face and tugged on Korra's hair loop. The Avatar couldn't suppress a smile.

"Hi there…" she realized she didn't know his name.

"Wait, what's his name?" She turned around just in time to see the man being escorted out by the police. But before disappearing downstairs, he managed to respond.

"Hakue"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! Thank you for your patience, I needed a break to catch up with writing and uni work. How are you all holding up? 
> 
> I wrote this chapter's first draft like two month ago in what I thought was English, but upon re-reading it yesterday I seriously considered tossing the whole computer to the bin and setting it on fire. I spent more time spellchecking this thing than actually writting it. Hope it payed out cause I phisically can't read it one more time. Enjoy.


	25. Aftermath

Korra sat the boy up in the hood of a police car and wrapped him in a blanket. Since she had no authority to arrest people, she was put in baby duty while the officers cuffed the perps and tried taking statements. 

She had protested, but only lightly. As much as she wanted to be there for the interrogation, see if any of the captured cracked and revealed Nilak’s location, she didn’t want to push it. She had disobeyed orders left and right during the operation and even if the tell off from Lin was yet to come, Korra was sure she was one complain away from being banned from all and every police procedure in the future. 

So, for now, the boy had her undivided attention. And it seemed to be the case the other way around as well. Despite everything going on, the hectic energy and mass of police officers buzzing around them, Hakue had his limited attention focused on Korra.

"What are you looking at? She squinted at the boy, looking behind her back, guessing the bright lights of the police cars over her shoulder were the enticing things Hakue was fascinated by. But when she turned back around to face him it became clear it was her the boy was looking at. "What is it?" She tried getting a glimpse of her reflection in the car's windshield "Do I have something stuck in my- Oh no, wait up" the boy was done inspecting Korra and had moved on to experiencing. He reached forward to grab the subject of his interest, almost tipping off the car's hood in the process. 

Korra scooped him up before that happened, but the sudden movement was enough to rattle him. And when Korra swiped the hair off his face, she found his eyes watering with tears. He started crying.

"Oh no, don't cry, I'm sorry" she held him in her hands and started rocking him up and down like she saw the lizard man do earlier in the warehouse, shushing him and patting him in the back, feeling out of depth. 

But to her surprise, the boy stopped crying almost immediately. Not due to Korra’s incredible soothing abilities, but rather because he realized what he wanted was finally within his reach. 

The Avatar saw the spark of enthusiasm replace the tears in Hakue’s dark green eyes as both of his little fists reached out and closed around Korra's hair loop, a chubby finger poking her in the eye in the process. 

"Ouch, kid, let go" but Hakue wasn't about to give up his new toy. Instead he pulled on it, testing if it was attached to any sort of mechanism "Ouch!" said Korra, and laughter poured out of him: to his amazement, it seemed it was! Every time he pulled; sounds came out of the woman the toy was attached to. This only fueled his interest in it. "You are enjoying this, aren't you?" Hakue responded with a gleeful burst of laughter and another tug on her hair. Korra smiled and played along, guessing it was better than letting him cry,

The boy suddenly noticed the toy could come undone, and after a few tries, got a hold of the sheath that held the hair loop together, swiftly removing it with a pull. He inspected it attentively for a few moments, cross-eyed, before sticking it in his mouth.

"Oh no" Korra panicked "Hakue, give that back" she said, trying to pry the sheath out from in between his little incisors. The action was promptly reciprocated with an angry screech. "I'm sorry, but I am not gotta let you choke" the boy seemed more than happy to choke if it meant having his toy back. He began crying again, his cheeks red for indignation.

Korra tried shushing him, uncomfortable with the looks she was getting from the police officers around her. She even caved and tried giving Hakue a non-choking hazard strand of hair. But the damage was done, the boy wasn’t standing for the injustice of his toy being taken away. He kept crying his head off and Korra looked down at her feet, an idea popping in her head.

“Prepared to see something cool, Hakue?” Korra switched the screaming baby to her left arm and picked up a pebble with earthbending with her right, making it dance around the boy, successfully diverting his attention to the new moving thing. It wasn’t long until he was no longer crying and reaching for the pebble.

It kept him busy for a little while, but soon Korra started feeling a competing force working against her bending. She looked around trying to spot the agent pulling on the pebble, but every earthbender nearby had their hands full. Hakue, on the other hand, seemed oddly focused on the pebble. She thought it over for a moment before letting go.

The pebble instantly ended up on Hakue’s grasp. And then, he tried shoving it in his mouth.

“Oh for Raava, that backfired” she muttered to herself, yanking the pebble away before he could swallow it “No small pieces of earth around you, then” and before the boy could complain about yet another toy being taken away, Korra proceed to blow a gust of wind around him, tussling his hair. He looked at her, surprised, his mouth forming a small ‘o’. Korra chuckled and did it again, and then again… and again. They were still going at it when Lin approached them.

Korra straighten up in her presence, preparing herself for the scold of the century. But when Lin just stood there besides them, silently in her thoughts, the bags under her eyes more pronounced than usual, Korra was compelled to be the one to break the ice.

“Hey…” she started, hesitantly “Good job out there. That was quick, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah…” Lin hummed a concern tone to her voice “And easy” she added. 

“I wouldn’t say easy” Korra stopped airbending for a second, Hakue whimpering in complaint asking for more in a language that vaguely resembled English “We were prepared, we knew that building top to bottom, half of the police force was assigned to this mission. You overviewed the whole thing. Give yourself some credit” Korra resumed playing with Hakue. 

“I don’t know. Something doesn’t feel right” she clicked her tongue “If the kids were so important for his end plan, why would he leave them so exposed? There were only five people inside, no radio to call for backup. They didn’t even try fighting back. Some of them were benders even, yet they let it happen” a chill went down Korra’s spine “It just doesn’t make sense”

“What are you implying?” Korra stopped airbending altogether.

“I’m just saying not to get ahead of ourselves just yet” she said “We might have won this battle, but we still don’t know what kind of war we are fighting” 

“Chief!” someone called Lin over, cutting her joy-killing short, to Korra’s relief. She waited for Lin to be out of earshot before whispering at the boy:

“Don’t listen to the grumpy lady, Hakue” he had abandoned his playful mood, the day finally catching up to him. He rested his head on Korra’s chest tiredly while she ran a hand through his hair “We got _you_ out of that dump, that’s a pretty big win, isn’t it?” the boy looked up at her with fluttering eyes “Everything is going to be okay, you’ll see” She kissed the top of his head, and with that, Hakue seemed to believe her, finally closing his eyes, ready to take a nap.

But because the universe liked making a fool of Korra, Lin appeared moments after, wearing an unusually wild expression.

“Hand that baby over, we need to go” she shouted at her, startling Hakue awake, who began to cry.

“What do you mean, what happened?” an officer appeared out of the blue besides her with a blanket, snatching the crying baby of her hands. “Wait” Korra muttered under her breath, looking him disappear inside a police car, squirming in the man’s arms. 

“Snap out of it” Lin appeared in front of her “Air Temple Island is under attack” color faded from Korra’s face, her worst fears flashing before her eyes. Asami, Akemi, her friends, literally everything Korra cared about in the world was in Air Temple Island.

“Where is my staff?” she yelled at nobody in a shrill cry. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like I have to aplogise for this chapter lol.   
> Hope the Hakue cuteness makes up for the cliffhanger, and that you are all staying safe!


	26. The Calm Before the Storm

"Hey, Akemi, want to come feed the bisons with-? Jinora's last words faded as she walked through the hallway, picking up cheerful chit chatting coming from her room. Intrigued and a little amused, she approached the doorway and stood by, silently watching.

Akemi was playing with one of Ikki's old tea sets, her back turned to her. There were five tea cups set in a circle around her, one for herself and three for the plushies, but she was talking to the empty space where the fifth one was placed. 

Jinora tried getting closer to better hear what she was saying, but a creaking plank under her foot revealed her presence, and the girl turned around.

"Hi Jinora" she greeted.

"Is Rohan with you?" The young airbender asked, looking around in case it was him Akemi was talking to, but there were just the two of them in the room

"No" Akemi frowned "He stole my flying lemur and went away" she poured imaginary tea into the fifth cup. 

"Oh, in that case, can I take your flying lemur's spot in the meantime?" Jinora played along, pointing at the empty space. Akemi looked at her confused.

"Flying lemurs don't drink tea, silly" she said with determination "They drink lychee juice!"

"Oh, of course, my bad" she apologized, chuckling under her breath as she sat on her knees. "Then who are you saving that spot for?" 

"Hakue sits there" she explained casually. "Did you know Korra found him?" She handed Jinora an empty tea cup. The girl pretended to drink from it, doubt creasing her forehead.

“Is that so?" She had guessed Asami would’ve said something if that was the case. But she let it go. "Where was he before?" Akemi pursed her lips and looked down 

"I don't know. It was dark" the girl responded absentmindedly "But he will be home soon" Akemi tried changing the subject, as she force-fed the Kyoshi doll a plastic cookie. 

"What do you mean it was dark?" Jinora exclaimed, a jolt of surprise making her sit straight up "Akemi, can you actually see Hakue? Can you talk to him?" Neither Korra nor Asami had mentioned the girl had spiritual abilities.

Akemi looked at her, displeased by Jinora's change of tone and all those questions. But she liked Jinora, so she tried answering.

"He is not so good at taking yet, but he cries a lot" Akemi made a disgruntled face. "I don't like when he cries. Hurts my ears"

"Is he here right now?" Jinora looked away for a second and closed her eyes, trying to catch the slightest glimpse of spiritual energy, but she felt nothing outside the usual. 

"Not right now, because _you_ are here" Akemi replied, offering the airbender a plastic cookie. Jinora accepted it, mouth agape, excitement making the corners of her mouth lift upwards. After all, with Bumi gone to the South Pole, the spiritual talent in the family was honestly lacking. And this seemed promising. She frantically begun asking questions. 

"How do you find him? Can you feel him? His energy? Can you find other people?" Akemi looked at the airbender as if she had grown a third eye, and backed away a little, surprised at the outburst. Jinora regained composure just as Asami appeared through the door. Akemi jumped to her feet, tipping one of the cups in her way to the woman.

"Ready to go to bed?" Asami said, running a hand through the girl's hair. Akemi frowned, not too thrilled with the idea.

"But Korra isn't back yet" she pouted.

"She has work to do. But you’ll see her in the morning, don’t worry” Asami reassured her. But Jinora saw the restlessness beyond her calming words. She knew Korra should’ve been back by now. 

"Will Hakue be here too?" Asami scrunched up her mouth. 

“We’ve talked about this, remember?” she held the girl’s fist in her hand and stroked the scarred knuckles with her thumb “Korra is doing her best trying to find him, but we don’t know where he is yet, okay?” The girl stared at her, a plain look on her face.

“Oh, don’t worry, Asami. Hakue is with Korra” Akemi smiled and Asami frowned, worried about how the girl would take the news if Korra didn’t end up finding the boy. "Can we wait until they are back?" The girl tried bargaining.

Jinora wondered if she should voice her suspicions about Akemi to the woman, but thought it would be better to be sure before speaking out. She stood up and approached them, placing her hands-on Akemi's shoulders. 

“Tell you what, if your mom is okay with it, you can come help me feed the bisons and If Korra isn’t back by then, I’ll let you sleep in my room. We can have a sleepover.” Jinora looked up at Asami gauging if she approved of her idea. Akemi let out a dragged out “please” between them. 

"Sound like fun" As Akemi dragged Jinora out of the room, Asami whispered to her "Are you sure about this?" She would have guessed a 21-year-old girl would have better things to do than hang out with a four-year-old. But Jinora nodded with a smile. "At least let me come by" the engineer offered.

When they reached the dining room through the corridor, Akemi let go of Jinora in favor of rescuing her flying lemur plush, held hostage by Rohan. 

"Give it back" she exclaimed with a mischievous smile before going after the ten-year-old. Jinora seized the opportunity to lean back and whisper to Asami:

"She… Akemi seemed to be talking to someone earlier, but there was no one in the room with her" Asami was more invested in looking out her daughter didn't accidentally burn Rohan than in what Jinora was implying. 

"Yeah, she does that, overactive imagination" she responded "Kids, please be careful" Akemi took off after Rohan chasing him around the room. 

"I don't think that's it" Jinora said, swiftly moving to the side, dodging the two laughing children "Is she interested in spirits by any chance?" The girl kept prodding, but she knew the conversation would have to wait when her sister stepped into the room, dread written all over her face.

"Uuughh" Ikki complained loudly "I can't deal with you anymore!" the subject of her frustration came behind her, dragging his feet, an old book under his arm and a satisfied grin on his face. "Mom! You try teaching Meelo, I'm done!" Ikki yelled. "Oh, hey Asami" her voice returned to the usual chirpy tone "Have you seen my mother around? Or my dad? Even Bolin would do at this point" 

"I'm not sure, I saw your mom earlier in the dining hall, as of Tenzin and Bolin, I think they tagged along with the airbenders in the practice arena. Do you need help with something?" While they talked, the persecution escalated with Rohan jumping into an air scooter to get away from the girl in tow.

"Yes please, very much. Rocks for brains here doesn't get math" Ikki said, rolling her eyes.

"You suck as a teacher" Meelo complained. 

"Let me see" Asami grabbed the book and cracked it open, catching the piece of paper that flew from in between its pages. "Oh, I see" she said looking at the sloppy notations "You just gotta-" Rohan's air scooter blew the paper away from Asami's hands. "No bending inside the house!" Asami used the stern tone she had been practicing.

"I got it" Jinora intercepted his little brother, grabbing him by the collar and taking the plush away from him. "Aren't you a little old for these things?" She said giving the toy back to Akemi. The girl stuck her tongue out "Now come on, there are bisons to feed" the girl took Jinora's hand.

“Will you be alright with her?” Asami asked Jinora from the table, head buried in Meelo’s homework. 

“We’ll manage” she smiled down at Akemi who was looking back at Rohan. Right when they were about to step out the room, the girl let go of Jinora’s hand and ran back to the airbender boy before Jinora could open her mouth to complain. 

"You can have it for now" Akemi as she handed Rohan the plush, she run back to grab Jinora’s hand "But don't tear his ear out!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi to whoever is left! I'm back and I am sorry for taking so long :D  
> I didn't expect to go back to upploading just yet, but I got some nice messages and I kinda went back to writting, so I guess thank you.  
> My university (doubles as a hospital) has been kinda on fire for obvius reasons, so thanks for the encouragement.

**Author's Note:**

> Quick note, English is not my first language, so I'm prone to mistakes. Sorry about that.  
> Always open for corrections/suggestions.


End file.
